KQ pilots had better go for lesser devil of redeployment

Ever since Kenya Airways management launched an ambitious plan to revive the fortunes of the national carrier, debate has slowly shifted from the imperative of such a drive to its mechanisms.

While there is a need to give altitude to the faltering airline, especially by the government and other concerned parties, it is the strategic approach that has come under public scrutiny and debate.

Dubbed ‘Operation Pride’, the revival blueprint put together by the airline’s management and backed by turnaround consultants McKinsey, seeks to improve profitability and engender financial stability, while at the same time re-working the carrier’s business model for greater operational efficiency and customer experience.

The latest point of interest is the recent announcement by KQ that it will ease off at least 600 of its employees as a means to reducing its costs with a view to eventually closing the profitability gap.

Naturally, this announcement has elicited a lot of angst among employees and organised labour. Job cuts are an emotive issue. The promise of a stable income yanked away from an employee at short notice is enough ground for contestation.

This is especially so in a labour market in which one formal job sometimes supports as many as 10 people.

But in a country and a world where many firms often find themselves teetering on the brink of financial collapse, retrenchment has always been on the table as a viable option for reducing costs and putting enterprise on the path of profitability again.

Kenya Airways has actually travelled this path before, in what is often held aloft in local human resource circles as execution that mimics best practice anywhere in the world.

Other firms that have conducted or are doing mass layoffs are Airtel, Telkom Kenya and Uchumi, among others.

Retrenchments are not a novelty in Kenya. They have become part and parcel of formal employment and contracting between employers and employees. In fact, what should increasingly exercise us is how they are conducted.

For instance, what has the employer done to ensure employee interest is secured, as much as possible?

What measures have been inbuilt into the process to ensure that exiting employees are given as soft a landing as is practically possible?

What about employee rights and adherence to labour laws, by both parties? Granted, these are scores on which local firms have not exactly acquitted themselves very honourably compared to their transnational peers. But a few are catching on.

The favoured device is normally to ask employees to opt for voluntary early retirement or VER as HR practitioners call it.

Lump-sum compensation

It is a win-win proposition for both employer and employee. The latter gets to have a say in the matter (it is voluntary) is better emotionally prepared for it and walks away with a substantial lump-sum as compensation. For the employer, it is more humane and legally safe.

Retrenching is potentially expensive and where there is limited cash to finance it, the company in question is left with little legroom.

It is in this context that Kenya Airways’ recent offer to negotiate re-deployment terms for some of its Boeing B777 pilots with friendly airlines as opposed to terminating them should be read.

Already, there are reports of disquiet among KQ pilots and their umbrella body, Kenya Airlines Pilot Association (Kalpa), regarding the path the carrier is proposing. This is to be expected and the matter could end up in court.

But the pilots need to take a long-term view of things. Globally, the aviation sector has been in turbulence for a long time, with most airlines surviving on government subsidies and bailouts.

This is what has kept international carriers, including closer home, Ethiopian and South African Airlines in the sky, despite clearly shaky fundamentals.

In a difficult situation, KQ is bending over backwards to give its most high paid, some say pampered, employees a soft landing. Pilot salaries are estimated to account for as much as 30 per cent of the airline’s payroll costs.

Being seconded to a partner airline for three years, subject to review, or re-absorption once KQ goes back to profitability, is perhaps better than being put in the streets.

Once out in the streets, the options will still remain beyond the Kenyan borders anyway. In any case, the proposed carrier Ethiopian Airlines would be a good fit. Some of the pilots trained in Addis and often spoke of the good facilities there during my studies in the same city.

By the time KQ proposes such a move, it is probably allowed in its CBA with the pilots. Kalpa is best advised to fully participate in the process to ensure that its members get a good deal.

The KQ management has shown that it has gained good momentum towards reviving the national carrier. It needs all the support it can get from all stakeholders.

The author is a HR practitioner, a member of IHRM and a PhD candidate at the University of Nairobi.