Kenya Airways has commenced its staff rationalisation
exercise with 80 staff set to be affected in the first phase of a redundancy plan
that will see 600 employees retrenched or moved.
KQ, as the national carrier is known by its international
code, is laying off the employees as part of cost-cutting measures it is
implementing to get back to profitability.
The Kenyan national carrier was to commence the retrenchment
in May but a delay in receiving Sh10 billion from African Export-Import Bank
(Afrexim) to cater for the exercise saw it delayed until now.
“We issued a notice to right size through staff redundancies
and redeployment on March 31 as required by law and an update was issued to
staff on May 4 following intense consultations with all parties involved,”
Kenya Airways said in a statement.
“During this period we have stress-tested the accuracy of
our right-sizing estimates in order to ensure that we have identified all
possible ways to retain staff as well as securing the airlines long term
operational efficiency.”
The national carrier in March announced that it intends to
declare about 15 per cent of its staff complement redundant in a downsizing
move that it said would reduce its payroll by about Sh2 billion annually.
KQ’s workforce stood at 3,973 as at March last year and
their cost has grown by 51 per cent in the past five years to Sh16.96 billion
for the year ended March 2015 compared to Sh11.2 billion in 2011.
The airline did not offer its staff the option of applying
for voluntary early retirement (VER) in an effort to put a lid on the
exercise’s cost and block potential exits by key employees.
“Today, we will commence with the first phase of
redundancies which will impact approximately 80 staff members,” said Kenya
Airways.
“We are cognizant that this is a difficult period for Kenya
Airways and employee assistance will be available for affected staff at the
time of the exercise and for two weeks thereafter,” the statement added.
Source: Daily Nation
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