By Ammu Kannampilly and Humphrey Malalo
NAIROBI (Reuters) -A Kenyan court docket dominated on Friday that Fb (NASDAQ:)’s guardian firm Meta might be sued within the East African nation over the dismissal of dozens of content material moderators by a contractor.
Final 12 months the content material moderators sued Meta and two contractors, saying they misplaced their jobs with Sama, a Kenya-based agency contracted to average Fb content material, for making an attempt to organise a union.
They mentioned they had been then blacklisted from making use of for a similar roles at one other agency, Majorel, after Fb modified contractors.
Out-of-court settlement talks between the moderators and Meta collapsed in October final 12 months.
The case might have implications for the way Meta works with content material moderators globally. The U.S. large works with moderators world wide tasked with reviewing graphic content material posted on its platform.
Friday’s resolution by the Courtroom of Enchantment upheld an earlier ruling by a Kenyan labour court docket in April 2023 that Meta might face trial over the moderators’ dismissals, which Meta appealed.
It additionally upheld a separate ruling in February 2023 that Meta might be sued in Kenya over alleged poor working circumstances, which Meta additionally appealed.
“The upshot of our above findings is that the appellants’ (Meta’s) appeals … are devoid of advantage and each appeals are hereby dismissed with prices to the respondents,” the judges on the Courtroom of Enchantment mentioned of their ruling.
Meta, Sama and Majorel didn’t instantly reply to Reuters requests for remark.
Meta has beforehand responded to allegations of a poor working setting in Kenya by saying it requires companions to offer industry-leading circumstances.
Sama has mentioned it has at all times adopted Kenyan legislation and offered psychological well being companies to its staff.
Majorel has mentioned it doesn’t touch upon pending or lively litigation.
“Meta being sued in Kenya is a get up name for all Large Tech corporations to concentrate to the human rights violations going down alongside their worth chains,” mentioned Mercy Mutemi, a lawyer for the content material moderators.