Sinn Féin’s enterprise and employment spokeswoman is set to raise questions over Meta’s decision to cut some jobs in Ireland at a meeting with the tech giant next week.
The Irish Times reported last week that some staff at Meta Ireland have queried the legality of their so-called performance-based dismissals and sought the advice of solicitors.
Employment law experts have questioned whether the dismissals – unveiled earlier this month as part of a wider, global cull of what Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg described as “low-performers” – are being conducted in accordance with Irish law.
Meta, which said last week that it has full confidence “in the fairness and robustness” of its performance review process, told employees in a January memo that it was cutting roughly 5 per cent of its global workforce. The social media group has said it intends to backfill the Irish and global roles affected by the announcement.
In a statement to The Irish Times, Rose Conway-Walsh, Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on enterprise, tourism and enterprise, said she was “deeply concerned” that some workers may have lost their “positions due to sub-par performance without this being flagged at any performance reviews”.
“While Meta Ireland is a valued employer in this State, it is imperative that all companies and organisations regardless of size adhere to employment law,” the Mayo TD said. “Those laws are there to protect both employers and employees.”
She said she would raise the issue with Meta at a meeting in Dublin next week. Ms Conway-Walsh has also written to Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke, looking for “assurance that Irish redundancy laws are being adhered to”.
Last Friday, a spokeswoman for the Minister confirmed he had not received a collective redundancy notification from Meta and said that any further queries should be directed to the company.
In anonymous communications between Meta Ireland staff, seen by The Irish Times, some employees claimed they were not given any notice that the company considered their performance to be sub-par.
In one post, a staff member said they had not received negative ratings in any of their performance reviews in their more than five years with the company.
If the terminations are, as Mr Zuckberg flagged earlier this year, performance-based, this “may not necessarily provide bona fide grounds for dismissal under Irish law, if fair procedures are not properly followed”, said Anthony Fay, a solicitor based in Dublin.
“For instance, it would be unreasonable to hire replacements without first offering existing employees the opportunity to engage in genuine performance improvement plans or explore redeployment options,” he said.
“Furthermore, fair procedures cannot logically be upheld if Meta has already made a predetermined decision to reduce its workforce by approximately 5 per cent.”
One employment law expert told The Irish Times that Meta’s handling of the terminations does not accord with Irish law.
However, he said staff were being offered severance packages generous enough that it made “no sense” for the employees to challenge the process in the Workplace Relations Commission because they would end up with less money.
The Financial Times reported last week that Mr Zuckerberg said on a recent earnings call that he intended 2025 to be an “intense” year in which Meta would invest to become the “AI leader”. This includes expenditure on big projects, such as data centres, of between $60 billion (€57.13 billion) and $65 billion this year.
