Spanish-language WhatsApp moderators allege pay discrimination

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More than 100 outsourced Spanish-speaking moderators and customer service reps for WhatsApp say their contracted company Accenture denied them equal pay to other multilingual colleagues in the same building. A group of entrepreneurs from Austin, Texas and Dublin, Ireland claim that while Accenture hired them to answer reports in Spanish all day, they are told they are not eligible for the $ 2 bonus. $ US ($ 3) per hour offered in Arabic. or Portuguese language.

Moderators and customer service reps report receiving a base salary of US $ 16.50 ($ 21) per hour. Content moderators at Facebook, the parent company of WhatsApp, have said time and again in media interviews and in a $ 52 million ($ 67 million) lawsuit that work can cause PTSD. While WhatsApp is a messaging service, moderators review private content that users report, such as child pornography. An Accenture job posting at an Austin, Texas site specifically calls for bilingual Spanish / English speakers and includes the disclaimer: “In the context of this role, individuals may be exposed to potentially disturbing content. and will need a level of resilience and maturity. “The base salary is not indicated.

Facebook contractors are already part of the Facebook worker subclass, earning considerably less than its employees. (Wired reported that in 2018, the median salary for a Facebook employee was around US $ 228,651 ($ 293,268), which is over US $ 100 ($ 128) per hour.)

“For several years now, Accenture, Facebook and Whatsapp have denied equal treatment and pay to Spanish-speaking agency workers,” reads the letter sent internally to the CEOs of WhatsApp, Facebook and Accenture. “Accenture managers and human resources representatives in Austin, TX have not only ignored complaints of discrimination for several years now, but they have also been actively engaged in ensuring that this blatant injustice is not recognized. nor corrected. The workers demanded wage arrears to cover the missed bonus, dating back to their hiring.

As of this writing, someone familiar with the case told Gizmodo that the letter had 100 signatures. They say about 500 Spanish-speaking moderators and customer service reps work at the Austin office.

WhatsApp, Accenture and Facebook were not immediately available for comment. We will update the post when we have a response. You can read the letter in full here:

Letter of request for equal pay

Mark Zuckerberg (CEO, Facebook)

Will Cathcart (CEO, Whatsapp)

Julie Sweet (CEO, Accenture)

John Arnold (Accenture / Whatsapp Project Manager)

Melody Carson (Accenture / Whatsapp Project Manager)

Dear Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Cathcart, Mrs. Sweet, Mr. Arnold, Mrs. Carson:

We are agency workers, Facebook employees and public supporters around the world.

We, the undersigned, have serious problems with Accenture’s approach to our concerns about the widespread discrimination that takes place among agency worker teams in Austin, Texas and Dublin, Ireland.

Agency workers are at the heart of Facebook and Accenture’s business models. Temporary workers are essential to the health and safety of its multiple platforms, projects and products. And yet companies treat agency workers unfairly and with utter contempt.

Today we are writing to demand change.

For several years now, Accenture, Facebook and Whatsapp have denied equal treatment and pay to Spanish-speaking temporary workers.

It’s an insult for companies like Facebook and Accenture to publicly defend diversity, but fail to convey it to their own employees.

Accenture’s directors and human resources representatives in Austin, TX have not only ignored complaints of discrimination for several years now, but they have also been actively engaged in ensuring that this blatant injustice is neither recognized nor processed.

We say that this blatant act of racism and discrimination against its own core workers must end now.

We demand that the hourly language bonus offered to bilingual hires of all languages ​​ALSO be offered to the Spanish language.

This includes all Spanish speaking positions within our teams:

Agents, PME Sr, PME, QA Sr, QA, QA Jr, Trainers, TLA, TL, Sr TL, etc. (hereinafter referred to as Spanish language workers).

We also require that all Spanish speaking workers receive retroactive payment for the language bonus they have missed since their hire date to be paid immediately.

We look forward to your public response.

Very sincerely yours,

Accenture workers, Facebook and our supporters.

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