Kenya Airways says forcing it to reinstate more than 130 staff will lead to irreparable loss of money.
Employment and Labour Relations Court Judge Hellen Wasilwa Wednesday directed that further hearing of a case filed by Kenya Airways #ticker:KQ employees be temporarily stopped to allow the airline argue its case at the appellate court.
KQ, as the airline is known by its international code, is appealing against Justice Wasilwa’s order reinstating its engineers and technical staff who were sacked for going on strike to press for pay rise.
The workers umbrella body, Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) through lawyer Samuel Aduda, has also sought to be enjoined in the case as an interested party. The application will be heard when the hearing before Labour Court resumes.
The airline will be making a second attempt to have the orders directing it to take back the more than 130 engineers and technicians, due to safety concerns, lifted.
It had attempted to set aside the orders of the Labour Court, but the request was not granted.
The judge had in the order stated that, “given the sensitivity of the issues involving the aircraft and security of human lives, I will temporarily reinstate the engineers and technicians.”
In the Court of Appeal papers, KQ, however argues that it has not suffered any inconveniences or been prejudiced in so far as maintenance of aircraft is concerned following the dismissal of the claimants.
“Kenya Airways still has in its employment 467 engineers and technicians attending to the aircraft,” said lawyer Obura Mbeche in court papers.
He argued the employment court issued the orders despite the fact that the aggrieved employees had in their court papers, sought monetary compensation as an alternative to reinstatement.
He added that the orders were also given when there was no evidence that the employee who had filed the affidavit, had done so with consent of all the sacked employees.
“The judge issued the orders without giving Kenya Airways a chance to be heard. The judge also assumed knowledge of aircraft safety and maintenance without the benefit of expert evidence,” lawyer Mbeche said.
He said reinstating the engineers and technicians without giving KQ the chance to be heard would subject the national carrier to irreparable loss of money in the form of remuneration.
According to KQ, on November 28, the employees engaged in unprotected strike and despite plea that they resume work, they refused resulting into their dismissal on November 29.
Since the summary dismissal, KQ has also re-organised its operations to correspond to its personnel establishment and there have been no flight cancellations or delays occasioned due to lack of maintenance nor had there been any concerns experienced by Kenya Airways leading to grounding of aircraft due to absence of the services of the sacked personnel.
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