According to court documents, a Kenyan judge has temporarily halted the mass redundancy of approximately 260 Facebook content moderators working for an outsourcing company contracted by the social media site’s parent company Meta.
Judge Matthews Nduma issued an interim injunction against Meta and the Kenya-based outsourcing firm Sama, preventing them from terminating the contracts of the content moderators at the end of March pending a decision on the legality of their redundancy.
Few days ago, 43 moderators from Facebook’s Nairobi moderation hub sued the social media company and Sama for illegal redundancy.
The 43 applicants claim they were fired from Sama for organising a union. They also claim that after Facebook switched contractors, they were barred from applying for the same positions at another outsourcing firm, Luxembourg-based Majorel.
Sama said on Monday that it had not been served with the lawsuit, but that it had followed Kenyan law in every way and had often gone above and beyond what was required. It announced the closure of its content-moderation division.
Nduma also prohibited Meta from temporarily subcontracting the roles of workers who moderate Facebook content for Eastern and Southern Africa.
Meta filed an appeal in Kenya last month, challenging a ruling that said it could be sued in a separate lawsuit brought by a moderator over alleged poor working conditions, despite the fact that the company has no official presence in the east African country.
The court cases may have ramifications for how Meta interacts with content moderators around the world. The American company employs thousands of moderators worldwide who are tasked with reviewing graphic content posted on its platform.