Court dismisses Meta plea over unfair sacking

An employment court on Thursday denied an application by Facebook parent company Meta, seeking to overturn a petition by 260 content moderators who have sued the company for unfair dismissal.

Meta Platforms Inc and Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd have argued that the Kenyan courts lack jurisdiction to decide the matter because they are foreign companies that do not trade in the country.

Content moderators went to court last month and obtained orders preventing a local Meta agent from declaring them redundant.

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The content moderators initially worked with Samasource Kenya EPZ (Sama) but alleged that Meta had terminated the contract and were planning to hire new people through Majorel Kenya Ltd.

Justice Matthews Ndoma denied Meta’s application saying that the dispute revolved around the relationship between employer and employee and that it was immaterial whether the alleged abuses occurred in a physical or virtual space, within Kenya

“The court will consider the nature and extent of liability in respect of breaches and alleged breaches of the Constitution arising from and/or relating to employment and labor relations in Kenya,” the judge said.

Meta wanted to dismiss the case on the grounds that they were foreign companies with no legal or factual presence in Kenya.

The company further informed the court that the case was filed without first obtaining the court’s permission.

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The employees, through lawyer Mercy Mutimi, went to court saying that they were from different countries in Africa and that they acted as Facebook content moderators.

They told the court that the main tools of the trade are the Facebook Community Standards created and fully reviewed by Meta.

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