San Francisco, Mar 13 (IANS): In a somewhat discriminatory gesture, Facebook has reportedly banned its contractual workers (third-party content moderators) from work out of home, and has instead encouraged regular staff to avail work from home option amid new coronavirus outbreak in the US.

According to The Interceptor, many contract workers said that, "contrary to statements to them from Facebook, they are barred by their actual employers from working from home, despite the technical feasibility and clear public health benefits of doing so.''

Facebook has hired contractors employed by Accenture and Wipro and most of those are content moderators.

These workers said they've been told that the only way they can stay home is by using the paid time off (PTO) days they're allotted each year.

"Most people here are sick, coughing, and sneezing. The office ran out of Clorox wipes," the workers were quoted as saying in the report on Thursday.

"One Accenture employee told The Intercept that their entire team of over 20 contractors had been told that they were not permitted to work from home to avoid infection".

In fact, Facebook had to shut its Seattle office after one of its contractors tested positive for COVID-19. According to Tracy Clayton, a Facebook spokesperson, a contractor based in the Stadium East Office was diagnosed with coronavirus.

The social media giant has "strongly recommended all its workers in the Bay Area to work from home.

According to a company spokesperson, "there is some work that cannot be done from home for content reviewers, some of this work must be done from the office for safety, privacy and legal reasons".

"We're exploring work from home options on a temporary basis, and have already enabled it in some locations," the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

According to a post from an Austin Facebook contractor, Accenture "is only sending home people who exhibit flu like symptoms in the workplace".