Over 180 Facebook Employees in Kenya Obtain Orders to Preserve Immigration Status

Over 180 Facebook moderators working in Kenya have obtained court orders preserving their immigration status after receiving termination letters from their employer.

The foreigners worked for Sama, an outsourcing company that was hired by Meta to moderate Facebook content from Nairobi in 2019.

At the beginning of the year, Sama informed its 260 content moderators at its Nairobi office that they were being laid off, with Meta contracting another company to moderate Facebook content from Kenya.

In a petition filed under a certificate of urgency at the Employment and Labor Relations Court, the employees claim they were given nine working days to clear with Sama, after which they will have no status to stay in Kenya.

Through lawyer Mercy Mutemi, they termed the move as “a blatant show of disregard to the Court orders and the sanctity of the judicial process and a clear intimidation by the Respondents.”

“Terminating the contracts of the petitioners in this manner is gravely prejudicial considering there is a live petition before this Honourable Court challenging the termination of contracts and the interim orders subsisting,” the lawyer said in the petition.

Justice Byram Ongaya issued orders preserving the immigration status of all foreign petitioners and allowing them to remain in Kenya lawfully.

“That pending the inter-partes hearing or further orders by the Court, orders are hereby granted preserving the immigration status of foreign petitioners herein being Facebook content moderators and allowing them to remain in Kenya lawfully,” the judge said.

The judge directed the case to be mentioned on May 11th.

The Facebook moderators sued Meta and Sama in March for unlawful dismissal but Meta challenged the case arguing that Kenyan courts had no jurisdiction over it because it is neither based in nor trades in Kenya.

But the labor court dismissed Meta’s application, ruling that the US tech giant can be sued in Kenya.

The Facebook moderators want the court to declare the termination unlawful and order their reinstatement.