Court now blocks Kenya Airways pilots from striking
Kenya Airways' Boeing 777-300ER aircraft at JKIA, Nairobi. The pilots' plans have now been blocked by a Labour Court. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
The pilots on Tuesday threatened to ground the airline’s operations to a halt if Mr Ngunze will not have left office by midday tomorrow.
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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