Analysis – African data workers often struggle. They face occupational insecurity, including temporary contracts, low wages, arbitrary terminations, and workers’ surveillance, and surprise physical and psychological health risks. The outcomes of their work include fatigue, burnout, mental health tension, chronic stress, dizziness and weakening of vision.
Datawork includes text prediction, image and video annotation, text validation, and speeches to content moderation.
The world of data work is built on workers’ arbitration – taking advantage of the fact that workers earn less money in less countries than other countries and have less protection.
Large technology companies outsource the work to the global South, including African countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, India and Venezuela. The result is a complex production network that is generally opaque and secretly covered.
Workers and researchers have issued many warnings about the health of data workers. Despite many court cases in multiple jurisdictions, nothing has been done by high-tech companies or regulators to address these issues.
Still, news of the death of Nigerian content moderator Ladi Anzaki Olubunmi, who was found dead in an apartment in Nairobi, Kenya on March 7, 2025, came as a shock. The circumstances of her death are still unknown, but we have updated the broader systematic demands for change. Her death sparked accusations from the Kenya Gig Workers Coalition, which demanded an investigation.
Since 2015, he has studied the central role of African data workers in the construction and maintenance of artificial intelligence (AI) systems that act as “data controllers.” Our study found that companies rarely refuse to accept the use of human workers in the AI value chain, and remained “hidden” from the public eye. In other words, the AI world is built on the hardships of human workers that most people don’t realize.
This article outlines the key steps required to protect these data workers in Africa. These include outsourcing regulations for business processes, ensuring quality rather than the volume of employment, and providing social protection. You also need to embarrass companies that abuse data workers by naming them.
Data work requires stricter regulations.
Regulations
Business process outsourcing is the practice of sourcing a variety of processes or operations from external suppliers or vendors. Companies that do this may seek to circumvent local regulations (such as minimum wage) and liability for workers’ welfare (through the use of subcontractors and temporary employment agencies).
This is happening in Africa as some data training companies and digital labor platforms avoid local labour laws. But there’s more to the story.
Datawork can be seen as both ramp-prolonged unemployment and informal solutions across Africa, both by lawmakers and practitioners. The African government has actively created a regulatory environment that allows these practices to flourish despite the disadvantageous consequences of workers.
Nevertheless, a recent proposal has been made to the Kenya Government Business Act (Amendment) Bill, new regulations targeting the 2024 business process outsourcing and IT-enabled services sector. In particular, you will become a business process outsourcing company that is responsible for any claims raised by employees. This ensures accountability for businesses that bring data work to Africa.
Other governments should follow similar measures to ensure that workers’ rights are enforceable. Some data workers are employed on a short five-day contract and receive less payments than the local minimum wage. The company has determined that it should be punished for violating labor standards.
In fact, there is an urgent need to create regional or continental regulatory frameworks covering business processes and limit the space for businesses to exploit workers.
However, as businesses move to locations with favorable laws, employment may be lost in the daily reality of outsourcing networks.
Quality, not quantity
African governments need to prioritize the quality of employment, not quantity. Policymakers should think about broader national economic development plans, particularly structural diversification and economic upgrades.
Historically, these strategies have brought success in several states, addressing social and economic issues such as unemployment, poverty, and inequality.
Another option for the African government is to enhance social protection for data workers. This is a serious issue, and proper taxation and compliance between workers and employers is urgently needed.
Finally, there is the role of naming and embarrassment for companies that treat data workers poorly. There is evidence that such efforts will improve compliance and corporate behavior.
Workers’ movements
African data workers take risks by speaking openly about their experiences. However, these types of approaches work well when combined with collective bargaining.
Workers have historically achieved labour and civil rights after a long and fierce battle. There is a long history of African workers’ movements and trade unions in opposition to apartheid and colonial regimes across the continent.
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Freedom of association is engraved in the African Charter on the Rights of Man and People, with most governments committed to collective bargaining, but rarely implemented in new outsourcing sectors, particularly data work.
Also, due to the high churn rate, it is difficult to organize industry workers. For example, data training companies like SAMA offer short-term contracts to employees, often as short as five days.
Some companies are hostile to worker organising activities.
However, there have been many data worker-led associations in Africa recently, some of which are led by the co-authors of this article. Among them are the Technology Community Africa, African High Tech Worker Rising, African Content Moderators Association, and Data Label Yards Association.
These initiatives are important to ensure workers have appropriate compensation, work-life balance, proper working hours, arbitrary termination, a safe working environment, and contributions to health and welfare.
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Mophat Okinyi, Kauna Malgwi, Sonia Kgomo and Richard Mathenge co-authored this article.
Source: Conversation.
