Sri Lankan firm, Browns Plc, has kicked up a storm with the planned retrenchment of more than 2,000 employees, a year after setting up base in Kenya.
The Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union and local leaders led by Kericho Governor Erick Mutai said the company was unjustifiably targeting workers, months after taking over the plantations in Kericho, Bomet, and Kiambu from James Finlay Kenya and Ekaterra Plc.
The company has dangled gratuity as per the existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to its employees who will take up the package, which includes severance pay equivalent to 23 days’ pay for each completed year of service.
Rajiv Bandaranayake, Chief Executive, said the company would also provide a one-way bus fare as per the CBA signed with the trade unions and workers who will be affected, as contained in a notice dated September 19, 2025, to the employees.
It requires the employees to provide “notice pay in accordance with the terms of service as per the CBA, prorated pay for outstanding leave days”.
Further, the company, he said, would “be providing financial management and entrepreneurship training for, psychosocial support that the workers may require, extension of medical support for employees or their dependants with existing medical conditions, upon formal request and approval by the Chief Executive Officer”.
“Extended stay in the company housing upon formal application and approval by compliance with the company’s housing policy to accommodate employees and avoid disrupting the academic calendar,” Mr Bandaranayake said, will also be offered by the company.
The Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union has written to the company demanding answers on the retrenchment plan, which they claim was being hurried and illegally implemented without consulting or involving the union.
“The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is very clear in clause (31) on retirement age; at no time have the parties negotiated on voluntary early retirement to be carried out in Brown Plantation East Africa” the union said.
Mr Thomas Kipkemboi, in a letter to the company on behalf of the Central Organization of Trade Union (COTU) Secretary General, Francis Atwoli, who is also the KPAWU Secretary General, called for a review of the planned action against the workers.
The union has threatened to take legal action against the company if it does not stop the planned early retirement of the workers and engage all the parties involved, adding that it would mobilise its members to picket and strike.
Mr Kipkemboi, who is the KPAWU Assistant Secretary General, claimed that the workers being targeted were the unionisable ones, as the company was allegedly keen on ensuring that those who would remain do not enjoy union protection and can therefore not negotiate for a pay rise and better working conditions.
Mr Dickson Sang, the KPAWU Kericho branch Secretary, said the tea company was keen on outsourcing labour, months after taking over the plantations from Ekaterra, Unilever, and Finlays Tea Kenya, in total defiance of the CBAs signed with the union.
“Workers are being asked to take voluntary early retirement for fear of losing out on benefits, as they have been threatened with a sack. This is unacceptable,” Mr Sang said in Kericho on Wednesday.
Mr Sang said “The plan, overall, is to outsource labour, subject employees to lower wages and deprive them of benefits including medical cover, sick leave and limited career progression opportunities”.
Dr Erick Mutai, the Kericho Governor, and Chepchabas Member of the County Assembly, Wesley Kiprotich, have rallied behind the workers and called for the immediate halting of the voluntary early retirement being pushed by the firm.
“We have engaged the management of the Browns Plantations company with a view to having them review the move, retain the workers, and employ more in the near future in place of the machines that were introduced a few years ago,” Dr Mutai said.
Mr Kiprotich said the company should instead offer more jobs to the local community as tea pickers to foster relations and uplift the standards of living for the residents in an area that rakes in millions in profits with the harvest and sale of tea.
“As it stands now, the companies have deployed police officers to guard most of their farms, a responsibility that can be bestowed on the locals in what will deepen the relationship with the investors,” Mr Kiprotich said.
Liptons Teas and Infusions and James Finlay Kenya sold their tea plantations in Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania plantations in 2023 to Browns Investment Plc, making it one of the largest tea producers in the world.
At Finlays Kenya, 15 percent of the plantation was reserved for the local community in Bomet and Kericho counties in what has been estimated as an investment worth Sh650 million.
Under the Liptons Teas and Infusion, the Browns Investments Plc took over 11plantations and eight factories in Kericho, Bomet, and Kiambu counties.
Browns Investments has lately made similar acquisitions in Sri Lanka and Sierra Leone in a global expansion strategy that seeks to position it as a top producer of tea.
Upon taking over the estates, the multinational assured workers, residents, and leaders that all jobs were secure and there would be no declaration of redundancies, with rules of natural attrition allowed to take effect.
