NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 1 – Kenya Airways Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Allan Kilavuka says the airline is ready for talks with pilots who decried victimization and harassment with their grievances not being addressed.
While stating that the planned strike by pilots will jeopardize the airline’s recovery plans, Kilavuka urged them to respect the court order and give dialogue a chance.
Citing the Covid-19 impact on the economy, Kilavuka said that the airline cannot afford additional disruptions.
“We are still open and willing to have discussions regarding the grievances that have been raised in their notice of industrial action,” he said.
The Kenya Airline Pilots Association had accused the airline of intimidation through sacking with Secretary General Murithi Nyagah highlighting two cases where members were victimized, and their terms of employment not respected.
“Allow us to highlight two cases; One of our members had baseless allegations brought against him by his immediate manager for respecting his terms and conditions of employment as outlined in the CBA,” Kalpa Secretary General Murithi Nyagah said
“He raised a grievance against the harassment with the Head of Department who responded by instituting a thoughtless disciplinary process against the pilot. The matter was escalated to the Ministry of Labour where the matter was rightfully ruled in favour of the pilot,” he stated.
Kilavuka said that upon receiving numerous industrial action notices from Kalpa, they have tried to reach various stakeholders regarding the strike, including the COTU and the Ministry of Labor, in an effort to find a resolution.
The stakeholders who were contacted to mediate the industrial action sent by Kalpa responded to the airline to request call off the strike which caused a misunderstanding between Kalpa and the airline management because Kalpa refused to attend the scheduled negotiation meetings.
“We are still open and willing to have discussions regarding the grievances that have been raised in their notice of industrial action,” he said.
He asserted that the airline has faced serious financial challenges as a result of the COVID 19 outbreak. He continued by saying that they are making every effort to get the airline’s finances back to where they were before the outbreak.
Withdrawal of the staff provident fund as accused by Kapla was as result of the airline as a sponsor not being in a position to fund it anymore because they could not afford it anymore, they had no money anymore.
“We closed the fund after the trustee of the fund who are the people responsible for running the fund recognized that we as sponsors could not continue funding the provident fund,” he said
“This was communicated to Kalpa and to all employees by the trustees which in May they responded acknowledging to have received that communication saying specifically they have okayed the suspension for three months but up to the point the airline financial position will improve.”
Kilavuka also acknowledged the staff’s efforts to maintain the airline’s operations despite the limits imposed by the pandemic, which led to a rise in the airline budget but had not yet reached its stable point; if they maintain the pace, they will be able to accomplish their target plan.
“Any strike will negate all the recovery progress we have made and it will take us a bit far behind,” he said.
“Many of our pilots are professionals and we don’t believe they’ll enter into an unlawful act. They will not engage in that act.”
Other points of concerns raised by Kalpa concerning the airline, they want the airline to stop the victimization immediately.
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