Corporate News
Kenya Airways' Boeing 777-300ER aircraft at JKIA, Nairobi. The pilots'
plans have now been blocked by a Labour Court. PHOTO | FILE
By MUGAMBI MUTEGI, pmutegi@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
The Employment and Labour Relations Court has issued
orders stopping Kenya Airways’ pilots from calling a strike on Thursday
intended to force the exit of the airline’s chief executive officer.
Justice Nderi Nduma has issued the restraining orders
following an application by the airline seeking to stop its pilots from
going on strike tomorrow upon the expiry of a 48-hour notice.
The Kenya Airline Pilots Association (Kalpa), which
is made up of approximately 500 pilots, has accused KQ’s management of
gross mismanagement and fraud have cost the company billions of
shilling.
The pilots on Tuesday threatened to ground the
airline’s operations to a halt if the carrier's CEO Mr Mbuvi Ngunze will
not have left office by midday tomorrow.
Their plans have now been blocked by the Court even
as Justice Nduma ordered that Kalpa responds to KQ’s application within
10 days ahead of an interpartes hearing scheduled for May 9, 2016.
“An interim order is hereby granted restraining the
respondents (Kalpa), its members, agents, servants and/or sympathizers
from calling participating or engaging in any form of industrial
strike,” Justice Nduma ruled.
Kalpa’s list of bad decisions that cost KQ billions
of shillings in recent years includes costly agreements the airline
entered with travel agents, the sale of aircraft at throwaway prices and
irregular leasing of others without securing proper documentation.
The pilots also criticised the airline’s management
for selling prime London parking slots that were at the core of KQ’s
attractiveness to London-bound business travellers as well as staying in
an unprofitable relationship with Dutch carrier KLM.
Captain Paul Gichinga, the union's
secretary-general, on Tuesday said the bad decisions by the KQ
management had cost it billions of shillings in the past five years,
leaving it with record losses.
The pilots promised not to fly KQ’s 30 aircraft
beginning midday tomorrow unless Mr Ngunze resigns — a move that would
have caused mass flight cancellations and undermined recovery efforts
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