Employment and Labour Relations Court on Tuesday issued orders that froze KCB staff bonuses across five countries where it has operations.
The lender however argues that the court has no jurisdiction over its employees based in Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Southern Sudan.
The Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) #ticker:KCB has moved to court seeking to lift orders stopping it from paying bonuses to its managers, saying the directive affects regional employees who are not party to the dispute.
Employment and Labour Relations Court on Tuesday issued orders that froze KCB staff bonuses across five countries where it has operations.
The lender however argues that the court has no jurisdiction over its employees based in Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Southern Sudan.
The latest court action is the culmination of a dispute that began last August when the Banking, Insurance and Finance Union (Bifu) obtained orders stopping termination of any unionisable employees’ services based on quarterly performance reviews.
But the bank accuses the union of misleading the court when it was granted the orders.
“The ex-parte orders issued on March 20, 2018 affects the management staff of the KCB Group in different countries and/or jurisdictions constituting of 2,279 employees whose performance has been evaluated in line with the respective banks’ policy…and more so they are not party to this suit,” says KCB in its affidavit.
The lender further claims the March salary has been tabulated and bonuses factored in, and that the orders will negatively affect its operations and diminish the morale of the affected staff.
Only non-unionisable employees were appraised since the court had issued orders in August suspending evaluation of the union members.
The bank therefore says the union has no mandate to interfere with the benefits of staff who are not their members.
Justice Hellen Wasilwa yesterday certified the matter urgent and directed the bank to serve the union and set the hearing for April 9.
Union officials went back to court this week after learning that the managers — who are not members of the union — were due to be paid 2017 bonuses at the end of this month to the exclusion of unionisable employees. The union sees this as discriminatory.
Bifu says failure to assess the performance of unionisable employees in the last quarter of last year means the senior management could not purport to have appraised themselves and qualified for bonuses, since their performance depends on that of the staff working under their supervision.
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