Facebook content material moderators in Kenya are suing the social media web site’s guardian firm Meta and two outsourcing corporations for illegal redundancy, a rights group stated on Monday.
The 43 candidates say they misplaced their jobs with Sama, a Kenya-based agency contracted to average Facebook content material, for organising a union. They additionally say they have been blacklisted from making use of for the identical roles at one other outsourcing agency, Majorel, after Facebook switched contractors.
Last month Meta filed an attraction in Kenya difficult a ruling which stated it might be sued in a separate lawsuit introduced by a moderator over alleged poor working situations, regardless that it has no official presence in the east African nation.
The courtroom instances may have implications for how Meta works with content material moderators globally. The USÂ firm works with hundreds of moderators world wide, tasked with reviewing graphic content material posted on its platform.
“This is a union-busting operation masquerading as a mass redundancy. You can’t just switch suppliers and tell recruiters not to hire your workers because they are ‘troublemakers’ – that is, because they have the temerity to stand up for themselves,” stated Cori Crider from Foxglove, a know-how rights group which is supporting the newest lawsuit.
Meta, Majorel and Sama didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
In January, 260 content material moderators working at Facebook’s moderation hub in Nairobi have been advised they’d be made redundant by Sama, the outsourcing agency which has run the workplace since 2019, Foxglove stated in an announcement.
The moderators accuse Meta of instructing Majorel to not rent any moderators beforehand employed by Sama, in keeping with the courtroom petition.
“The redundancy being undertaken is unlawful because no genuine nor justifiable reason was given for the redundancy,” the moderators stated in their software.
“The moderators have been given varying and confusing
explanations for the redundancy which do not add up.”
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