Sacked KenolKobil staff seek court’s help to get their jobs back

The full impact of the Kenya Airways ruling in the labour market is slowly taking shape as sacked staff of an oil retailer say they will amend their court papers to seek reinstatement.

Sacked KenolKobil employees say they will go to court to seek reinstatement, just a week after the Industrial Court in Nairobi ordered Kenya Airways to take back 447 employees it had sent home in a retrenchment exercise carried out in September.  

Through their lawyer, Mr Japheth Change, the former employees said that they will also be seeking protection of their employment rights even as reports emerge that Puma Energy, a Swiss-based company that had proposed to take-over KenolKobil, could have pulled out of the deal.

“We still have a case against KenolKobil. Things have happened as a result of the proposed take-over; some employees have been sacked while others have been suspended. We will be seeking to have the rights of employees protected, including reinstatement of the sacked workers,” said Mr Change.

However, KenolKobil transaction advisers Kestrel Capital refuted the claims, saying that negotiations on the take-over bid are ongoing.

“As the transaction advisers, we can confirm that the negotiations are ongoing. We have not been notified of their termination,” said Kestrel Capital’s executive director Andre Desimone.

Early this year, KenolKobil’s chief executive Jacob Segman told investors that the company was shopping for a strategic investor who would support its growth strategy.

In July, a communication was sent to shareholders notifying them of a proposed take-over by Puma Energy, who were to acquire over 75 per cent shareholding, forcing the company to delist from the Nairobi Securities Exchange.

The communication has since caused panic among employees, forcing them to move to court to halt the deal until a clear direction regarding protection of their employment rights under the new employer (Puma Energy) was given.

Though the court give orders stopping any retrenchment, the management is said to have sacked about 20 employees, triggering the new application.

In their fresh pursuit, which is yet another legal tussle hinting at violation of employee rights by an employer, Mr Change said that the former employees will be out to prove to the court that employees’ concerns about their job security under the proposed new ownership were valid, especially after some were laid off in the process.

Aside from the case involving its employees, KenolKobil has been involved in a number of other court cases such as that with the Kenya Pipeline Company where the company was ordered to pay Sh2 billion to the state owned company.

In another suit, the oil marketer is also facing off with rival Total over joint ownership of depots where the latter has claimed possession of rights to buy out KenolKobil before the take-over bid is concluded.

These, according to analysts are some of the hurdles that could make Puma Energy to reverse its decision to invest in KenolKobil.