The disengagement of 22 out of its 26 Nigerian in the employment of Kenyan Airways, has sparked off a Cold War between one of the Unions in the industry and the airlines.
Kenyan Airways is blaming the Union for their failure to do the needful when called upon, while the union is threatening to picket the airline.
A source close to the airline said the staff were issued the disengagement letters at the airline’s office in Lagos in the presence of stern looking police officers who were engaged by the airline to scare away the affected staff and prevent possible breakdown of law and order.
The affected staff were only given four weeks wages on disengagement by the management, a situation the industry unions are already frowning at.
Only four of its Nigerian staff are retained by the management of the airline after the purging exercise. Those retained are Country Manager, Mr. Afeez Balogun, the Station Manager, and two other staff.
It was gathered that the abrupt sack of the Nigerian workers happened when the airline was still negotiating the new condition of service with the industry unions.
The source said the carrier’s management took the decision without taking into consideration the Nigeria labour laws, which kicks against unilateral decision by employers when disengaging workers.
It was learnt that plans have also reached an advanced stage by the management of the airline to replace the sacked workers with casuals as it has already contracted engagement of new workers to a General Sales Agent (GSA) in the country.
The General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Comrade Olayinka Abioye in an interview with our correspondent confirmed the sack of the 22 workers.
Abioye however said that the unilateral sack of the workers by the airline would not be allowed to stand by the industry unions.
Abioye insisted that the sack of the workers was illegal especially at a time the management had reached an agreement to implement some of the reviewed conditions of service for the workers.
He said: “We have been agitating for the review of terms and conditions of employment in Kenya Airways for about two years. We started the process and somewhere along the line, the management of Kenya Airways said they were doing restructuring exercise because of the financial conditions of the airline. In the meantime, we have even agreed to certain reviews approved by both parties and only waiting for implementation.
“That was one of the reasons we embarked on the picketing we did last December. Then, after the picketing, we were invited and we concluded the review after the review, we discovered that our Nigerian staff were being owed about 26 months monetary benefits. They claimed that they won’t be able to pay all, but after the consultations, we agreed for 16 months to be paid the workers.
“In between, they introduced a new shift into the discussion, saying that going forward they want to replace all business plans with new business plans called General Sales Agent (GSA), which means they want to engage a travelling agency to handle the ticket sales and reservation and all the workers would be sacked.
“We as unions, didn’t like that and we expressed our dissatisfaction and they said it was not just only Nigeria that would be affected, but throughout the continent. Then, we just said we have formed a consortium of GSA so that the workers would still be retained, but they informed us that we were too late and as they have engaged another GSA already.”
He explained further that the unions had informed the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Muhtar Usman of its intent to picket the operations of the airline any moment from now.
He emphasised that the attention of the Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika would also be drawn to the action of the airline and the decision to be taken by the unions.
He, however, said that the unions would jointly hold a congress on the issue in Lagos on Monday, saying the outcome of the congress would determine the next line of action to be taken by the unions, but insisted it would not accept shabby treatment of Nigerian workers by any organisations.
Responding to the threat and allegations by the union, the airline gave prove of series of meeting arranged to resolve any issues pertaining in a letter sent to the Union.
In a letter with the reference number: IR/NUATE/11/04/2018/BF dated April 11, 2018 and sent to the general secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and signed by the airline’s acting chief human resources officer, Bridgette Imbuga, stated that the airline as at January 15, 2018 notified the union of its redundancy plan and called for a meeting with the airline, which the union refused to honour.
According to the letter, NUATE had picked different dates February 15, 2018, February 26, 2018, March 6, 2018, March 16, 2018, and April 5, 2018 for the meeting which it (NUATE) was alleged to have failed to hounour e management of the airline, but failed to honour any of the dates.
The letter reads in part: “Despite our displeasure, we dutifully indulged you and agreed to hold the meeting on the 16th March 2018. Although you kept us waiting at your national secretariat conference room for the better part of the afternoon, you finally turned up for the meeting at 4:30pm local time on the 16th March 2018.
“However, you declined to discuss the redundancy subject and instead proposed that we pick another date to specifically negotiate the redundancy payments. After considering each party’s commitments, you personally proposed 5th April 2018, which we mutually accepted and firmed up. It was therefore shockingly disappointed and unexpected that you failed to attend the meeting on the agreed date without any apologies or prior notification notwithstanding the fact that the management team had travelled to Lagos and were more punctually present for the meeting at the appointed venue.
“From the foregoing, it is clear that you are unwilling or uninterested in engaging management in negotiations on such an important matter affecting employees who are your members. On our part, we have demonstrated our willingness and commitment to use our best endeavours to negotiate separation terms for the employees who will be affected by the redundancy.”
