Just days before they were due to vote on forming a union, hundreds of TikTok workers in the UK lost their jobs. Now, some of them are taking the fight to court.
The former workers have launched legal action against the company, accusing it of unfair dismissal and breaching trade union laws after hundreds of moderators were laid off shortly before a planned union vote.
According to The Guardian, around 400 content moderators based in London lost their jobs before Christmas. The redundancy process began just a week before workers were due to vote on forming a collective bargaining unit.
The legal claim has been filed at an employment tribunal on behalf of three former employees. TikTok has denied the allegations, describing the case as “baseless.”
Moderators say layoffs derailed union plans
The affected workers were part of TikTok’s trust and safety team, responsible for reviewing and removing content that breaks the platform’s rules. Many had been organising to seek union recognition, saying the job exposed them to extreme and disturbing material with little support.
Moderators involved in the effort said they wanted stronger protections and a collective voice to address the mental and emotional toll of the work.
The dispute, according to The Guardian, dates back to August 2025, when the Communication Workers Union (CWU) was preparing to ballot several hundred TikTok moderators and quality assurance staff. Around that time, TikTok announced a restructuring exercise that placed members of the proposed bargaining unit at risk of redundancy.
Union calls sackings ‘union busting’
John Chadfield, national officer for tech workers at the CWU, said, “This is holding TikTok to account for union busting.”
“Content moderators have the most dangerous job on the internet. They are exposed to the child sex abuse material, executions, war, and drug use. Their job is to make sure this content doesn’t reach TikTok’s 30 million monthly users. It is high pressure and low paid. They wanted input into their workflows and more say over how they kept the platform safe. They said they were being asked to do too much with too few resources,” he added.
The CWU said it represented about 250 of the workers affected by the layoffs.
TikTok rejects the allegations
TikTok has strongly rejected claims that the sackings were linked to union activity. A spokesperson said the job cuts were part of a wider global reorganisation of its trust and safety operations.
“These changes were part of a wider global reorganisation, as we evolve our global operating model for trust and safety with the benefit of technological advancements to continue maximising safety for our users,” a TikTok spokesperson said, as reported by The Guardian.
The company said increasing use of AI has changed how moderation work is done. TikTok claims 91% of content that breaks its rules is now removed automatically, and that AI tools have reduced moderators’ exposure to graphic content by 76% over the past year.
A broader pattern?
The fired workers and their supporters aren’t buying it. They see a familiar corporate tactic.
Rosa Curling, of the tech justice group Foxglove, which is backing the legal case, accused TikTok of putting “union busting” first. “TikTok has made its position clear: union busting and trampling on our labour laws comes first — the safety of its users, including millions of children, and the wellbeing of its essential safety workers, comes last,” she told The Guardian.
The employment tribunal will now have to untangle the messy timing. Did TikTok fire hundreds for legitimate business reasons, as it claims? Or was it, as the workers allege, an “oppressive and intimidating” move to crush their union vote?
Also read: TikTok will roll out stronger age verification across the EU in the coming weeks as regulators push platforms to better protect younger users.
