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Out-of-court negotiations between content moderator, Meta, and Sama, the social giant’s former content review partner in Africa, over a labor dispute before a Kenyan court have failed.
This came to light today when the court was informed of the outcome of the mediation which allowed the parties to settle the case out of court in August. The case will now proceed to Kenya’s Employment and Labor Relations Court.
More than 180 moderators are suing Saama and Meta for unlawful dismissal. The moderator claims that Meta and Sama failed to issue him redundancy notices in accordance with Kenyan law and that his terminal outstanding was dependent on him signing non-disclosure agreements. They are also suing Majorelle, Meta’s other content moderation partner in Africa, for alleged discrimination. The moderator claims that Majorelle has blacklisted former employees of SAMA.
The counsel representing the mediators told the court that the mediation was not successful as he felt that no genuine effort was made on the part of the respondents. [Meta, Sama and Majorel] To reach an out-of-court settlement.”
Meta declined to comment.
A SAMA spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement that it was “disappointed that the mediation did not result in a resolution.”
“We have succeeded in coming to a mutually agreeable solution with approximately 60 mediators outside the mediation process, which demonstrates our commitment and willingness to find an amicable, win-win solution. , , Sama is in full compliance with all court orders. All arbitrators with valid contracts have been/are being paid as per court orders,” it said.
The moderators are demanding compensation “due to distress” and are demanding Sama reverse the redundancy notice. They are demanding that Meta establish a system of mental health support to be provided to employees in its centers globally. They also want Meta, Sama and Majorelle to be forced to acknowledge their right to form unions. It is likely that their demands did not match, due to which the talks failed.
Sama has said in the past that it had followed Kenya’s labor laws when making layoffs. Meta has said in previous proceedings that it was not the moderator’s employer – to which the Kenyan judge disagreed, saying that the moderator worked for Meta, used its technology, and followed its performance and accuracy metrics.
Sama laid off 260 content moderators at its center in Kenya after the venture-backed company closed its content moderation arm to focus on labeling work (computer vision data annotation).
South African Daniel Motaung is also suing Meta and Sama for labor and human trafficking, unfair labor relations, union busting and failure to provide “adequate” mental health and psychosocial support. Motaung alleges he was fired for organizing a 2019 strike and trying to get Samaa employees to unionize.
Ethiopians have also sued Meta in Kenya for failing to implement adequate security measures on Facebook, resulting in the deadly Tigray war, which has killed more than 500,000 people.
Updated on Monday, October 16, 2023 at 12:31 pm (ET) to include Saama’s response.
