Kenyan court rules Meta can be sued over layoffs by contractor
Friday September 20 2024
Premises of Nairobi-based subcontractor for Facebook's parent company, Meta, known as Samasource, the source of a suit in Nairobi. A court ruled that Meta can be sued over staff dismissals. PHOTO | FILE
A Kenyan court ruled on Friday that Facebook's parent company Meta could be sued in the East African nation over the dismissal of dozens of content moderators by a contractor.
Last year, the content moderators sued Meta and two local contractors, saying they lost their jobs with Sama, a Kenya-based firm contracted to moderate Facebook content, for organising a union.
They said they were then blacklisted from applying for the same roles at another firm, Majorel, after Facebook changed contractors. Out-of-court settlement talks collapsed in October last year.
Friday's decision by the Court of Appeal upheld an earlier ruling by a Kenyan labour court in April 2023 that Meta could face trial over the moderators' dismissals, which Meta appealed.
Read: The harrowing work of content moderators in Kenya
It also upheld a separate ruling in February 2023 that Meta could be sued in Kenya over alleged poor working conditions, which Meta also appealed.
"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," the three judges at the Court of Appeal said in their ruling on Friday.