A Kenyan labor court on Tuesday ordered hundreds of striking pilots at Kenya Airways to resume work on Wednesday while barring the airline from penalizing the pilots, reported The Reuters.
In Tuesday’s order, Judge Anna Mwaure of the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi said that pilots should resume their duties unconditionally by 6am on Wednesday.
On Saturday, the Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA) members went on strike after failing to resolve a dispute over their pension contribution and settlement of deferred pay after a 14-day notice had expired without the airline’s management addressing the demands. The strike resulted in the cancellation of dozens of flights by the largest Kenyan airline carrier and stranded thousands of passengers.
The protesting pilots, who make up 10 percent of the workforce, are calling for the reinstatement of contributions to a provident fund and payment of all salary arrears during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tuesday’s court ruling comes after the Kenyan national carrier announced on Monday that it was ending its recognition of the union and withdrawing from their collective bargaining deal. The airline company has accused the pilot union of exposing the airline to irreparable damage, estimating losses at $2.5 million per day.
Mwaure said the court would now consider the issue and ordered the airline’s management to allow the pilots “to perform their duties without harassing them or intimidating them and especially by not taking any disciplinary action against any of them”.
With 36 aircrafts in its fleet, Kenya Airways serves just as many countries on its routes. The airline is privately owned, but the Kenyan government has a 48.9% stake in it. The national carrier flies more than 4 million passengers to 42 destinations annually. The pilots’ strike has exacerbated the woes facing the troubled national carrier, which has been running losses for years, despite the government pumping in millions of dollars to keep it afloat.
