By Winnie Kamau
Nairobi, Kenya: Kenyan judge dismissed pleas from Facebook lawyers to dismiss a court order blocking Facebook and outsourcing company Sama from firing its entire content moderation workforce for East and Southern Africa. The layoff was due to be completed at the end of this week. The interim order reinforced today by Justice Nduma Nderi temporarily saves the moderators’ jobs and stops them from being plunged to unemployment.
The legal action was launched eleven days ago, when 43 moderators at Facebook’s Nairobi moderation hub, sued the social media firm and its outsourcers for sacking the entire workforce and for blacklisting the laid-off workers.
In response, Justice Nderi made an emergency order blocking the redundancy which was announced in January. All 260 content moderators working at Facebook’s moderation hub in Nairobi, Kenya, had been told they would be made redundant by Sama, the outsourcing firm since 2019.
Overnight, these moderators doing critical safety work for East and South Africa lost their jobs. Lawyers for Facebook filed an objection to the interim order, arguing that Facebook lacks a registered office in Kenya, does not trade in Kenya, and cannot be sued in Kenya for the conduct of its outsourcers.
Facebook’s arguments largely echo the claims made in the case of Daniel Motaung v Sama and Meta, which challenges union-busting and the appalling conditions at the same Nairobi hub.
The legal block confirmed today that the injunction preventing Facebook or Sama from firing its workers is extended until the legality of the redundancy is determined. It also stops Facebook switching suppliers to Majorel, because the case argues the switch is being carried out in a discriminatory way – with the companies effectively operating a ‘blacklist’ of all ex-Sama moderators as punishment for organising.
The case will be heard next in Open Court in Nairobi’s High Court on 12 April 2023, when all parties will highlight their submissions and a ruling date set.
It is alleged Facebook is switching suppliers from Sama to Majorel, another outsourcing firm that already handles moderation for TikTok in Kenya but at a fraction of the pay and in even worse conditions.The Sama content moderation office is already the subject of a lawsuit brought by former moderator Daniel Motaung who alleges he was fired unlawfully after organising around 150 moderators to protest unfair working conditions and forming a nascent trade union in the Nairobi hub.
