Companies

Kenya Airways staff take cut in perks in new deal

plane

KQ workers will not get a pay rise until the airline returns to profitability. PHOTO | FILE

Kenya Airways’ pilots and cabin crew are set to take a pay cut after the airline negotiated for a reduction in the allowances that they are paid for working outside the country.

In a new agreement that the airline signed with the Kenya Aviation Workers Union (KAWU), which takes effect from January 1, the workers will now draw allowances only for days spent overseas.

This ends the previous practice where they were guaranteed overlay allowances averaging Sh90,000 per month, and which assumed they each spent about nine days in foreign destinations every month.

Besides reduction of the overlay allowances, all KQ workers will not get a pay rise until the airline returns to profitability.

“It was hard to justify the guaranteed overlay allowances and we agreed with the company’s view of paying allowances on the exact number of days spent abroad,” said KUWA’s secretary-general Moss Ndiema in an interview.

The new agreement runs from July last year until June 2016. KQ agreed to raise other unspecified allowances using part of the savings on the overlay payouts.