Facebook content review company registers 20% absenteeism for psychologic trauma
Staff in Barcelona check content shared online including videos of murder, rape, or suicide
The content review company for Facebook (Meta) in Barcelona, CCC Barcelona Digital, registers around 20% absenteeism as workers suffer from psychological trauma because of their job.
The company is in charge of supervising all the content shared online, such as videos of murder, rape, or suicide, as Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia first reported, and the Catalan News Agency (ACN) was able to confirm.
Around 400 out of the 2,030 workers do not go to work as they are on sick leave for traumas related to mental health or even because they do not have a medical certificate; they cannot cope with the images.
"It is not an easy task. You never imagine what you will see," a CCC Barcelona Digital Services worker told ACN before explaining that the checking process is "progressive" as the longer the worker has been in the company, the more brutal the images he has to check. "Every day is like a roller coaster," she added.
The worker complains that there is no workers' agreement that regulates the work they do, and the only psychological help they get is the one offered by the company, which "is very limited."
CCC Barcelona Digital Services checks content shared online on Facebook and Instagram, and one year ago, work authorities fined the company €40,985 as they did not assess the psychological risks of their workers.
In recent months, the enterprise has also announced several layoffs.