KUJ demands illegal termination of Mediamax employees halted immediately
By Dickson Odhiambo
June 22, 2020
KUJ demands illegal termination
of Mediamax employees halted immediately
The Kenya Union of Journalists now demand that the illegal
termination of a section of employees of a media house is immediately halted.
Through its Secretary General Eric Oduor, the Union has
termed the ongoing termination of contracts in the name of redundancy of some employees of Mediamax Company
as unfair.
In press statement to newsrooms today, the Kenya Union of
Journalists Secretary General says the action by the Mediamax Acting Chief
Executive Officer Ken Ngaruya is very much unlawful hence needs to be reversed
immediately.
“The Kenya Union of Journalists has learnt with regret ill
treatment Mediamax Acting Chief Executive Officer Ken Ngaruya has decided to
subject company employees to in the ongoing unfair termination of contracts disguised
as redundancies,” says part of the press statement.
The KUJ Secretary General demands that the Mediamax Company
puts the exercise on hold to pave the way for consultations to fully comply
with the law.
The Union says failure by the Company to adhere to the
provisions of the law, then it should prepare for the mother of all legal
battles as its Human Resource and the Acting CEO will be personally responsible
for violation of a court order and subjecting employees to slavery.
The KUJ Secretary
General says while Section 40 of the Employment Act allows employers to
terminate contract on account of redundancy, however, the process must be followed
to ensure employees are treated in a just manner.
“It has been brought to our attention that in unprecedented
move, Mr. Ngaruya decided to preside over a process where affected employees
were sacked through SMS and asked to collect their letters that terminated
their contracts at a hotel in Nairobi,” press statement adds.
Oduor says this is a clear contravention of the law and
unfair best practices that Labor and Employment Court has ruled against in
similar cases brought before it in the past, adding that the process requires consultation
and engagements with the affected employees before such decision is made.
“Indeed Mr. Ngaruya has made history in labor relations as
the first CEO to implement Section 40 of the Employment Act and Article 41 of
the Constitution of Kenya 2010 through SMS,” he says.
The Secretary General says the illegal exercise disguised as
redundancy negates the existence of the company which was incorporated as a
news production and dissemination entity because it appears the so called
restructuring has disbanded newsroom.
“The Company has taken advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to
subject employees to unfair labor practice which include unilateral introduction
of pay cuts, withholding salaries and now unfair termination of contracts
disguised as redundancy,” Oduor further adds.
ENDS:
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The dismissal is totally against the law and Kenya being a democratic nation,nobody is above the law.
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