The Court Rejects Meta’s Claim of an Unfair Dismissal

On Thursday, the Employment Court rejected a request from Facebook’s parent company Meta to dismiss a lawsuit brought by 260 content moderators who claimed they were fired unfairly.

Because they are foreign corporations that do not conduct business in Kenya, Meta Platforms Inc. and Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd. claimed that the Kenyan courts lacked jurisdiction to decide the case.

Last month, the content moderators filed a lawsuit and won court orders preventing Meta’s local agent from removing them from service.

The content moderators were originally employed by Samasource Kenya EPZ (Sama), but they asserted that Meta terminated the agreement and intended to hire new staff members through Majorel Kenya Ltd.

Justice Mathews Nduma denied Meta’s request, stating that the employer-employee relationship is at issue and that the location of the alleged violations within Kenya—whether they take place in a physical location or online—is irrelevant.

“The court will consider the nature and extent of liability with regard to the alleged breaches and violations of the Constitution arising and or related to employment and Labour relations in Kenya,” the judge said.

Meta requested that the case be dismissed on the grounds that they are foreign businesses with no real or established presence in Kenya.

The firm further informed the court that the case was brought forth without first requesting the court’s approval.

Through their attorney Mercy Mutemi, the workers filed a lawsuit, claiming that they are from different African nations and that they work as Facebook content moderators.

They testified before the court that the Facebook community standards, which were entirely developed and updated by Meta, are the main tools of the trade