Content reviewers employed by Facebook have been complaining about their taxing and stressful work, which involves sifting through all kinds of posts, often harmful and violent. Considering the monotony of the job and its impact on the mental health of the reviewers, Genpact, a contractor of Facebook, has hiked the minimum wages for its content moderators.
Earlier this year, the content moderators at Genpact’s Hyderabad offices had highlighted the fact that their jobs were rather stressful and they were underpaid for the same. However, at that time the demands of these employees were turned down.
Since then, Genpact is reported to have more than doubled the minimum salaries for all the new hires in its Facebook teams, to Rs 250,000 per annum. But some people claim that this hike does not apply to the old or existing employees.
Genpact had over 1,600 employees on its rolls in the Facebook teams in Hyderabad, of which over 10 per cent were part of the global content moderation team, as on February, 2019.
A few months back, Facebook had hiked the minimum wages for its content moderators in the US from $15 to $18 to $22 per hour based on their location.
The Genpact team of moderators in Hyderabad is involved in reviewing posts in not only English but several others, including Indian, Arabic, Afghan as well as some Asian tribal dialects.