The logos of Facebook social network and its parent company Meta. Content moderators have filed a Sh25.9 billion class action lawsuit against Facebook owner Meta and its local agents.
A judge has declined to suspend the hearing of a case filed by 186 content moderators who sued Facebook owner Meta and its agent, blocking the termination of their jobs.
Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC) judge Mathews Nduma declined the request by Meta Platforms for suspension of the case, pending an appeal it has preferred to the Supreme Court.
Meta together with Samasource Kenya EPZ signalled its intention of moving to the Supreme Court after its application, challenging the jurisdiction of the Kenyan courts to prosecute the case, was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in September, 2024.
Justice Nduma said the court lacked capacity to weigh in on the matters decided by the Court of Appeal, so as to determine whether to suspend the proceedings.
“Accordingly, having considered the circumstances of this case, the application is misconceived and an attempt to clothe this court with a mandate it clearly does not have and whose only recourse from the judgment of the Court of Appeal is to hear and determine the petition pending before it,” said the judge.
The court said it was in the interest of justice and fair play to proceed with the hearing of the petition, which was filed in 2023.
Employment and Labour Relations Court Judge Mathews Nduma Nderi. File | Nation Media Group
Meta had submitted that the intended appeal at the apex court involved the interpretation or application of the constitution, and that it was necessary to stop the hearing to allow the Supreme Court weigh in on the contentious issue of jurisdiction.
The social media giant argued that the Facebook content moderators cannot pursue the legal claim against it as Meta was not based in Kenya.
Meta also argued that it is a foreign company with no operations in Kenya and the firm risked paying Sh10 million to the moderators yet they are not their employees.
Geographical limits
The social media giant submitted that the ELRC could not assume jurisdiction over a foreign corporation since the Kenya Constitution does not apply beyond its geographical limits and the firms are not subject to the Constitution.
In a ruling on March 20, 2023 Justice Nduma allowed the workers to serve the Facebook owners in their principal offices in the USA.
And after moving to the Court of Appeal, the same was dismissed as judges dismissed the case stating that the threat of the content moderators being laid off was properly before the jurisdiction of the ELRC.
The content moderators through lawyer Mercy Mutemi submitted that Meta and its former agent Samasource Kenya EPZ, started a redundancy programme to get rid of them in retaliation because of a petition filed by South African Daniel Motaung, alleging poor working conditions.
Ms Mutemi argued that Meta and its agents were trading in Kenya, that Facebook has millions of users in the country and draws revenue from the users through Facebook Pay and Facebook Marketplace.
The lawyer maintained that in today’s digital world, it is possible for a foreign company to operate fully in Kenya without a physical office in the country.
The content moderators are drawn from various countries in Africa and were engaged at the Content Moderation Centre in Nairobi, which served the larger Eastern and Southern African Region.
The moderators sued Meta Platforms and Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd and Samasource Kenya EPZ.
