The airline in its new policy for the
country’s workers said that payment of leave bonuses would now be based
on their performance on the job while workers would no longer be
entitled to leave allowances during public holidays. The new policy of
the airline has, however, angered the workers and industry unions who
said the policy was against Nigerian labour laws and they have issued
the airline a 14-day ultimatum to address the issue or risk industrial
action by the unions.
One of the unions, the National Union of
Air Transport Employees (NUATE) that had petitioned the management of
the airline described as obnoxious the new policy of Kenya Airways for
its Nigerian workers.
The petition dated September 11, 2017
with the reference number NUATE.GS/CM.KA/ENP/0015-17, signed by the
General Secretary of NUATE, Mr. Olayinka Abioye, and made available to
aviation correspondents, said that despite the lucrative nature of the
Nigerian route to the airline, the Nigerian staff were treated as
slaves.
According to the petition, Kenya Airways
earned over N10 billion between April 2015/2016 to March 3, 2017, out of
which the entire total staff cost for the airline was a mere 1.7 per
cent. The union said it had been in talks with the management of the
airline in the past three years for the review of the condition of
service of the workers but decried that the management reversed almost
all the agreements it reached with it without recourse to it.
The petition added: “Rising from the
Lagos meeting, management pleaded for two weeks within which to get back
to us, which later turned out to be almost two months. This negative
disposition notwithstanding, we honoured the August meeting with high
hopes considering the fact that the only issue yet to be settled was
that of the appropriate percentage to be paid Nigerian workers of KA
(Kenya Airways) on leave allowance.
“But the meeting turned upside down with
new management’s proposal of performance-based clause tied to the
payment of leave allowance, which is clearly alien to the Nigerian
legislation and applicable labour laws.”
The union also condemned the alleged
executive recklessness of the management to cancel the payment of
arrears of monies due to workers arising from review of salaries,
allowances and other ancillary matters in their collective bargaining
agreement.
The union demanded the restitution of all
the agreements reached in Lagos and immediate setting up of appropriate
machinery to commence their implementation.
It warned that failure of the airline to
address all the issues raised within 14 days, threatening that it would
not hesitate to cripple its operations in the country.
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