- A Kenyan court has asserted its authority to hear the appeal of nearly 200 former Sama content moderators who claim they were unlawfully fired by Meta.
- Meta claims that it cannot be sued by the former employees as it is a non-Kenyan organization and that it does not employ the complainants.
- However, the Labor Relations Court Judge disagreed with this argument.
On Thursday, a Kenyan court found that it has the authority to hear an appeal from almost 200 people who claim that a subcontractor for Facebook’s parent corporation Meta fired them in violation of the law.
On March 17, 183 content moderators employed in Nairobi by Sama, a Meta subcontractor, filed a lawsuit in a local court, alleging “unlawful” termination by the social media behemoth.
According to Meta’s attorneys, the company cannot be sued since the Employment and Labour Relations Court lacks the authority to judge against a non-Kenyan organization.
Additionally, it claims that Meta itself does not employ the complainants. But Labor Relations Court Judge Mathews Nduma Nderi disagreed.
“The Court finds that this Court has jurisdiction to determine the matter of alleged unlawful and unfair termination of employment,” the judge said.
The judge also sustained the March 21 interim injunction postponing the firing of the subcontractors. The layoffs followed the termination of a contract between Meta and Sama, a business contracted to filter Facebook material in east and southern Africa from 2019. The layoffs were notified in January and were set to begin at the end of March.
The contract was given to another business, Majorel, which has also been charged with bias in this situation. In their complaint, the employees said their dismissal was “unlawful as it is without justification and is procedurally unfair”.
Additionally, they alleged that Sama workers who attempted to be rehired by the new subcontractor had their applications rejected by Meta and Majorel.
Meta has two other court cases in Kenya. Daniel Motaung, a former Sama employee from South Africa, complained in Kenya in 2022 about Sama and Facebook, citing, among other things, poor working conditions and a dearth of mental health care.
In February, the Nairobi labor relations court ruled that it had the authority to hear Motaung’s case. The verdict has been appealed by Meta.
Within Kenya, a local NGO and two Ethiopian individuals have filed a second complaint against the social media behemoth for allegedly neglecting to take action against online hate speech across the continent.
The complainants demanded the establishment of a $1.6 billion fund to recompense the victims, alleging that this inactivity led to the death of a university professor in Ethiopia.
