Kenyan court orders mediation in Meta labour dispute
23/08/2023 10:38
NAIROBI, Aug 23 (Reuters) - A Kenyan court has given
Facebook's parent company Meta META.O and content moderators
suing it for unfair dismissal 21 days to resolve their dispute
out of court, a court order showed on Wednesday.
The 184 content moderators are suing Meta and two
subcontractors after they say they lost their jobs with one of
the firms, Sama, for organising a union.
The plaintiffs say they were then blacklisted from applying
for the same roles at the second firm, Luxembourg-based Majorel,
after Facebook switched contractors.
"The parties shall pursue an out of court settlement of this
petition through mediation," said the order by the Employment
and Labour Relations Court, which was signed by lawyers for the
plaintiffs, Meta, Sama and Majorel.
Kenya's former chief justice, Willy Mutunga, and Hellen
Apiyo, the acting commissioner for labour, will serve as
mediators, the order said. If the parties fail to resolve the
case within 21 days, the case will proceed before the court, it
said.
Meta, Sama and Majorel did not immediately respond to
requests for comment.
A judge ruled in April that Meta could be sued by the
moderators in Kenya, even though it has no official presence in
the east African country.
The case could have implications for how Meta works with
content moderators globally. The U.S. social media giant works
with thousands of moderators around the world, who review
graphic content posted on its platform.
Meta has also been sued in Kenya by a former moderator over
accusations of poor working conditions at Sama, and by two
Ethiopian researchers and a rights institute, which accuse it of
letting violent and hateful posts from Ethiopia flourish on
Facebook. Those cases are ongoing.
Meta said in May 2022, in response to the first case, that
it required partners to provide industry-leading conditions. On
the Ethiopia case, it said in December that hate speech and
incitement to violence were against the rules of Facebook and
Instagram.
(Reporting by George Obulutsa
Editing by Mark Potter)
((george.obulutsa@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
george.obulutsa.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))