Facebook suffers setback as it tries to avoid paying Sh1.9B to content moderators in Kenya
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has suffered a setback in its quest to avoid paying Sh1.9 billion to 186 sacked content moderators who worked for it in Kenya.
An out-of-court settlement between the moderators and Meta collapsed in October last year after what the moderators’ lawyer, Mercy Mutemi, described as bad faith on Meta’s part.
In its appeal, which was dismissed by the Court of Appeal, Meta challenged the Labour Court’s ruling that the company could be sued in Kenya over the alleged poor working conditions of its content moderators.
Meta had argued that the content moderators from various African countries who worked for its contracted moderation company, Samasource Kenya EPZ Limited, could not bring the claim against it because the company was not based in Kenya.
As a foreign company with no operations in Kenya, Meta has allayed fears that it risks paying Sh10 million to each of the moderators, even though they are not its employees if the Labour Court’s March 2023 ruling stands.
However, lawyer Ms Mutemi argued on behalf of the moderators that Meta and its agents were doing business in Kenya and that Facebook had millions of users in the country and made money from them through Facebook Pay and Facebook Marketplace. She also noted that the companies also pay Digital Service Tax (DST) to the Kenyan government.
The lawyer argued that in today’s digital world, a foreign company can operate fully in Kenya without having a physical office in the country.
Meta also challenged the Labour Court’s decision to grant an interim injunction halting the dismissals pending the hearing of the application.
However, the three appeal court judges who heard the case said they were satisfied that the Labour Court had recognised that there was a risk of the content moderators being dismissed and that it was appropriate and within the jurisdiction of the Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC) to intervene pending the determination of the case.
Ms Mutemi said with the Court of Appeal’s judgment, they will now proceed to the Labour Court to continue the litigation.
The content moderators are seeking compensation for wrongful termination of employment amounting to 12 months gross salary, damages of Sh10 million per moderator for unfair labour practices and a further Sh20 million each for violation of their rights.