Employer tort liability and worker's compensation exceptions for severe psychiatric trauma, depression, and secondary PTSD suffered by human content annotators and RLHF safety tuning teams.
Under 29 U.S.C. § 654(a)(1) (the OSHA General Duty Clause), employers must furnish employment free from recognized hazards causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm. In Scola v. Facebook, content moderators exposed to continuous violent, abusive, and extreme digital imagery won an historic $52M settlement establishing that severe psychological injury and secondary PTSD constitute recognized occupational health hazards.
