2023-05-02 21:40:38
A second successful attempt. More than one hundred and fifty employees of companies subcontracting Meta, OpenAI or ByteDance voted on Monday 1is May, in Nairobi, for the creation of the first African union of content moderators, against the backdrop of a legal battle against the giants of social networks, reported several media.
These professionals work or have worked for Facebook, TikTok or ChatGPT under conditions they deem “unworthy” and to the detriment of their mental health. On the occasion of International Workers’ Day, they gathered at the Mövenpick hotel in the Kenyan capital to demand an improvement in their working conditions, which they want more “just”, “safe” et “fair”.
The creation of their union is the result of several months of demands by workers from several African countries. As well as numerous contested dismissals, including that of Daniel Motaung, content moderator on Facebook, by the company Sama, responsible since 2019 for the moderation of content on Facebook for countries in East and South Africa. The employee had tried to form a union called Alliance in 2019, according to information from the American weekly Time.
South African employee Daniel Motaung filed a complaint in May 2022 against Meta and Sama in Kenya, denouncing working conditions “unworthy”misleading hiring methods, irregular and insufficient remuneration as well as the absence of psychological support.
Many lawsuits
Moderators are faced with a multiplicity of unsustainable images. Trevin Brownie, South African moderator who gave an interview to the BBC, reports having seen the worst of humanity, from child abuse to torture and suicide bombings. He remembers being ill on his first day of work after images showing the suicide of a man in front of a child. “I was vomiting”, he says. These images are, over time, “became a norm for me”, he told the British editorial staff. “I sacrificed my humanity for this work. I don’t think you can give more than your soul and then get kicked out like this. »
He was dismissed in March by the Sama company, like 259 of his colleagues, and then took legal action against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Sama. Forty-three Sama employees filed a complaint on March 17 for dismissal ” illegal “, 140 joined them. A legal action also concerns the Majorel company, the company which must recover the contract binding Meta and Sama after the end of this one.
In their complaint seen by Agence France-Presse, the employees consider their dismissal “illegal because without justification” and are indignant at” a procedure (…) unjust”. They also denounce discrimination by Meta and Majorel: Sama employees who applied to work at Majorel would have had their applications blocked.
Meta considers that he cannot be prosecuted
Meta’s lawyers say the US social media giant – which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp – cannot be prosecuted, arguing in particular that the Nairobi Employment and Labor Relations Tribunal lacks jurisdiction because the group does not is not established in Kenya. They also argue that the group is not bound by any employment contract with the complainants. But the court has “concluded that this court has jurisdiction to adjudicate on the issue of alleged unlawful and wrongful dismissal”according to a ruling released on Thursday, April 18.
The Kenyan justice also extended the suspension of the dismissals which he had pronounced on March 21, pending a judgment on the merits. “This is an important step. (…) When tech giants hurt Kenya, it is right that they answer to Kenyan justice. No tech giant, no matter how wealthy, should be above the law”welcomed in a press release Cori Crider, the director of the Foxglove association, which supports the complaint.
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