A court in Kenya ruled on Thursday that it has jurisdiction over the “unlawful dismissal” of 183 Facebook content moderators who work for the company Sama, a subcontractor of Facebook’s parent company Meta.
Meta is the target of two other complaints in Kenya. An initial complaint involving 140 employees of Sama was filed on 17 March alleging the unlawful dismissal of their colleagues.
Meta’s lawyers say the US social networking giant cannot be sued, arguing that the group has no business with the plaintiffs and that the Nairobi Employment and Labour Relations Tribunal has no jurisdiction, as the group does not operate in Kenya.
Justice Mathews Nduma Nderi ruled that the court has jurisdiction to rule on the issue of ‘unfair dismissal’, adding that the stay of the dismissals was extended by the court.
It should be recalled that these dismissals are the result of the forthcoming end of the contract between Meta and Sama, while this task should be entrusted to the company Majorel.
Sama has been in charge of content moderation on Facebook for South and East African countries since 2019.
Another complaint was filed in May 2022 against Meta and Sama by a former South African employee of Sama, denouncing “unworthy” working conditions and irregular and insufficient remuneration.