37
who are dying to get this job, that they
did research on the wages and this is a
nice wage considering what people are
getting in Kenya,” says one employee
who was present during the meeting.
A 2021 study carried out by three MIT
researchers found the average salary at
Sama including benefits was approxi-
mately 2.5 times the Kenyan minimum
wage. Workers say these wages cover
only the basic costs of living and don’t
allow them to save or meaningfully im-
prove their financial situations.
Within days, the two executives
from San Francisco had arrived in Nai-
robi, and Motaung was suspended from
his job pending a disciplinary hearing.
meetings with Cindy Abramson, one of
the executives who had flown in from
San Francisco. Two employees who were
particularly vocal during the worker re-
volt said Abramson flattered them in
these meetings, suggesting they had
leadership potential, and dangled the
prospect of promotion if they could per-
suade their colleagues to stand down.
Three participants in the attempted
labor action told TIME that during their
one-on-one meetings, Abramson—
whose total compensation in 2018
was $194,390, according to Sama’s
public filings—intimidated them into
revoking their names from the peti-
tion, saying they must choose between
disaffiliating from the Alliance and los-
ing their jobs. Her warnings were espe-
cially stark toward Kenyan employees,
said people with knowledge of the dis-
cussions. The Kenyans were reminded
in the meetings that they were easier
to replace than foreign workers, which
many of them took as a threat of being
fired if they did not stand down. Scared,
many workers started revoking their
signatures from the petition. “They
threatened us, and we backed down,”
says one Kenyan employee, who rea-
soned that it was better to have a low-
paying job than no job at all.
“There never was a strike or labor
action,” Sama said in its statement.
“Being a responsible employer, we
wanted to see our team in person, meet
with every one face-to-face, and address
their concerns head-on. It’s why we
flew members of our leadership team
to our offices in Nairobi, and it’s a deci-
sion we stand behind.” The statement
also said that after employees asked for
higher salaries, Sama conducted a pay
audit and found they were already being
paid double the living wage for the re-
gion. Sama said it has since changed
its onboarding processes to “be more
transparent about what to expect and
we intensified our onboarding program
by developing new training modules to
ensure team members were prepared on
how to handle the functions of the role.”
Abramson, who has since left Sama, de-
clined to comment
Two weeks after his suspension,
Sama fired Motaung, claiming he was
guilty of gross misconduct “for engaging
in acts that could amount to bullying,
Sama told Motaung some of his col-
leagues had accused him of bullying,
intimidating, and coercing them into
signing their names to the list of de-
mands. He was told to stay away from
the office and barred from talking to
his colleagues. Motaung denies the al-
legations that he bullied any of his col-
leagues into signing a petition for bet-
ter pay and working conditions. He
suspects that Sama intimidated sev-
eral of his former colleagues into mak-
ing statements against him. “It was just
them pretending to follow a process so
that they can get rid of me quickly, so
that everything can go back to normal,”
he says. Sama did not comment on alle-
gations of worker intimidation.
Meanwhile, other employees in-
volved in the attempted strike ac-
tion were being invited to individual
△
Facebook founder and CEO Mark
Zuckerberg testifies before a U.S.
Senate committee in April 2018
ALEX BRANDON—AP
