A Kenyan court on Friday June 2 suspended the firing of Facebook content moderators by a subcontractor of Meta, the parent company of the social network that is the subject of two other complaints in this East African country.
A group of 141 employees of the Sama company based in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, joined an initial complaint filed on March 17 by 43 of their colleagues denouncing their “illegal” dismissal.
Meta’s lawyers say the US social media giant, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, cannot be sued, arguing in particular that the Nairobi Employment and Industrial Relations Tribunal has no jurisdiction because the group is not based in Kenya. . They also argue that the group is not bound by any employment contract with the complainants.
In a 142-page ruling, Judge Byram Ongaya said on June 2 that Meta and Sama were “prohibited from terminating the contracts.”
goal will appeal
Meta will also “provide adequate medical, psychiatric, and psychological care to the petitioners and other Facebook content moderators,” pending a ruling on the merits. The company has announced its intention to appeal.
This decision “is a blow to the outsourcing model that Facebook uses to avoid liability,” said the Foxglove association, which supports the complaint.
These layoffs, announced in January and which were to take effect at the end of March, derive from the upcoming termination of the contract between Meta and Sama, responsible since 2019 for moderating content on Facebook for Eastern countries and South Africa. This task should be entrusted to the Majorel company.
“undignified” working conditions
In their complaint consulted by AFP, the employees consider their dismissal “illegal for unjustified and procedurally improper” because, they say, the legal procedure was not respected.
They also allege discrimination by Meta and Majorel, alleging that Sama employees who applied to work at Majorel were blocked from applying.
A former South African employee of Sama, Daniel Motaung, filed a complaint in May 2022 against Meta and Sama in Kenya, alleging “undignified” working conditions, deceptive recruitment methods, irregular and insufficient pay, and lack of psychological support.
The same Nairobi court declared itself competent in February to judge the case. Meta appealed the decision.
Meta is also facing another complaint in Kenya. A Kenyan NGO and two Ethiopian citizens accuse the platform of inaction against online hate speech in Africa, which they say resulted in the murder of a university professor in Ethiopia. They ask for the creation of a fund of 1,600 million dollars to compensate the victims.
AFP is a Meta partner, providing fact-checking services in Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.
Source: BFM TV
