KALPA Secretary General Captain Paul Gichangi and KQ Human Resource Director Sammy Chepkwony signed the CBA on Tuesday.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 22 – Kenya Airways (KQ) has signed a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the Kenya Airlines Pilot Association (KALPA) that aims at enhancing productivity, ending three years of negotiations.
The new CBA comes with no salary increment but instead provides an opportunity for pilots to earn a productivity allowance for more hours worked beyond a certain threshold.
The move will see more pilots flying thus eliminating the perception of pilot shortages in some fleets and will assist in stemming pilot attrition.
The CBA is valid for one year covering the period of April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018 with the implementation subject to registration at the Employment and Labour Relations Court.
KQ Human Resource Director Sammy Chepkwony and KALPA Secretary General Captain Paul Gichangi signed the CBA on Tuesday.
KALPA called off a strike in October last year after fruitful discussions with Kenya Airways Chairman Michael Joseph who had just joined following the departure of Dennis Awori.
Apart from remuneration, KALPA also wanted the resignation of the then KQ Managing Director Mbuvi Ngunze who they had termed as inexperienced and lacking capacity to bring the airline back to recovery after taking over from Titus Naikuni.
Mbuvi Ngunze left KQ in March 2017 but is still an advisor to the board.
KALPA has also raised concerns over the two years of revenue loss, questionable recovery strategies that include selling its most valuable assets in a bid to get back to profitability.
The national carrier cut their losses by 62 percent in 2017 to hit Sh10.2 billion loss compared to the Sh26 billion loss it recorded in 2016.
Ngunze said the turnaround strategy the airline has been implementing in the last one and a half years has started to bear fruit resulting in better performance.
