Meta in legal browl in Kenya over moderators' layoffs

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Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is embroiled in a legal tussle in Kenya over
layoff of dozens of content moderators by a contractor.

Indeed, a Kenyan court agreed on Friday that Meta could be sued for the layoff of the moderators by the contractor.

The content moderators have, indeed, sued Meta and two local contractors last year, claiming that their employment with Sama, a Kenya-based company hired to oversee Facebook content, was terminated as a result of their union organisation.

They claimed that after Facebook switched contractors, they were banned from applying for the same positions at Majorel, another company.

The talks for an out-of-court settlement broke down in October of last year.

The Court of Appeal’s order on Friday confirmed a labour court’s decision from April 2023 in Kenya, which had declared that Meta could go to trial regarding the moderators’ dismissals. Meta had challenged this decision.

It also upheld a different decision from February 2023 that allowed Meta to be sued in Kenya for allegedly subpar working conditions; Meta had appealed the decision.

The judges at the Court of Appeal said in their ruling that, “The upshot of our above findings is that the appellants’ (Meta’s) appeals … are devoid of merit and both appeals are hereby dismissed with costs to the respondents.”