KQ set to hire foreigners after firing locals

Kenya Airways is set to hire an undisclosed number of employees from other countries it flies to despite sending home about 600 staff, most of them Kenyans. Read (KQ loses another round in sack row)

On Thursday, the airline told its shareholders that it hired 479 employees in its last financial year only to later sack an almost similar number.

“Plans are under way to increase the number of cabin crew from other markets such as India, Burundi, Rwanda and Ghana as we embrace the diverse cultures in the various routes that we operate,” the airlines chief executive Titus Naikuni said in his statement to shareholders during the carrier’s annual general meeting in Nairobi.

Redundant

The airline declared 453 employees redundant last month, with 126 employees volunteering to go home. It cited unsustainable labour costs.

Its annual report shows that the group had a total employee workforce of 4,834 in the year ending March 2012, from 4,355 the previous year.

“To improve our cabin services by being helpful, courteous and attentive to our customer needs, we have recruited an additional 220 people, out of whom 16 are of Thai origin,” Mr Naikuni said.

The airline has now emerged as torn between keeping its wage bill in check and at the same time bowing to pressure from countries it flies to.

It is likely to give credence to claims by the sacked employees, who have been demonstrating on the streets for weeks now, that the airline is still recruiting ‘foreign’ employees after sacking locals.

“Kenya Airways is in the process of hiring flight attendants from India, Rwanda and Ghana, in addition to the existing foreign crew from Ghana and Thailand,” a press statement from the Kenya Airline Pilots Association (Kalpa) said as pilots joined the airline’s employee unions in protesting the move.

“We no longer have confidence in the management’s ability to successfully restructure the firm,” Kalpa’s chief executive Ronald Karauri said.

On Thursday, the airline held what was arguably its most guarded annual general meeting (AGM) after which Mr Naikuni told journalists he didn’t care about those wishing him out of the airline, saying he would “go home and take care of cows”.

Kenya’s Labour ministry is expected to complete a financial audit of Kenya Airways’ accounts this week that will show whether East Africa’s largest airline is unable to sustain its workforce.

The report, to be prepared by the Economic Planning Department in the ministry, is expected to investigate claims by the national carrier that it had to send home 578 workers to sustain its operations.

This follows an Industrial court order after the Aviation & Allied Workers Union (AAWU) rushed to court to oppose the retrenchment.