Meta will appeal Kenya’s court ruling that it is the main employer of sub-Saharan African moderators.
Meta appealed the March orders ruling last week. After 184 moderators sued it and its content review partner in sub-Saharan Africa, Sama, for breach of contract. The moderators also said Meta ordered Majorel, the social media giant’s new moderating partner in the region, to block them.
Last Friday, the Employment and Labor Relations Court found that Meta was the moderators’ primary employer and Sama was “merely an agent…” outsourced to supervise the task.
The court ruled that the moderators provided Meta-related services using its technology and meeting its performance and accuracy benchmarks. The court extended moderators’ contracts because it “found that the job of content moderation is available” and “the applicants will continue working upon the prevailing or better terms in the interim.”
The court also prevented Meta and Sama from firing moderators until the matter was resolved, saying there was no reason for the redundancies.
Meta, in court documents seen by TechCrunch, said the court had erred by extending expired contracts and “re-writing contracts of employment” between the moderators and Sama by “imposing terms and obligations” on Meta without knowing the details of the contract.
Joanne Redmond, Meta’s EMEA director and associate general counsel for labor and employment, stated in a June 7 affidavit that the moderators were Sama’s employees and that the court lacked the authority to hear the matter.
Meta alleges, among other things, that the court erred by directing it to regularize moderators’ immigration status and provide them with medical treatment.
The court found moderators’ employment “inherently hazardous” and ordered Meta and Sama to offer medical, psychiatric, and psychological therapy instead of “wellness counseling.” Meta’s Facebook moderators erase hateful, misinformed, and violent postings.
After canceling Meta’s contract and content assessment services, Sama fired 260 moderators.
The moderators claim Sama sacked them illegally by failing to give them redundancy notifications. The suit also alleges that moderators were not given a 30-day termination notice and that their termination dues were contingent on signing non-disclosure papers.
Sama said TechCrunch followed Kenyan legislation and announced the end of content control via a town hall, email, and notification letters.
They also claimed Majorel denied them jobs because they worked at Sama. The court instructed the new moderator to stop bias.
Meta is facing its third Kenyan lawsuit after South African Daniel Motaung sued the company last year for labor and human trafficking, unfair labor relations, union busting, and failing to provide “adequate” mental health and psychological care. Motaung claims he was fired for planning a 2019 strike and unionizing Sama staff.
Ethiopians have also sued Meta over grounds that Facebook’s lack of safety standards fuelled conflicts that killed 500,000 Ethiopians and one petitioner’s father during the Tigray War.
