Don’t evict workers, port bosses told
Dock Workers Union Secretary-General Simon Sang joins port employees in a celebration outside Bima Towers in Mombasa on July 7, 2015 after the Industrial Court stopped their eviction from houses. PHOTO | WACHIRA MWANGI |
What you need to know:
- Union comes to the rescue of dismissed employees.
- Staff want management to reinstate them immediately without conditions.
Twenty port workers will go back to the houses they were evicted from by their employer, the Industrial Court ordered on Tuesday.
The Kenya Ports Authority had sacked the 20 for going on strike at the port in Mombasa.
The court ruled that the sacked workers will remain in the staff houses until their case is concluded.
The workers went to court on Tuesday to challenge their dismissal and eviction from staff houses in Makupa, High Level, Mbaraki and other estates in Mombasa.
They argued that they were removed from the houses in an inhuman manner just a day after they were summarily dismissed.
Their lawyer, Yusuf Aboubakar, told the court that they owned 40 per cent of the staff houses through their pension scheme with ports authority.
The court certified the application as urgent and directed that it be served to the respondent.
“In the interim, claimants are restored to their staff houses from which they were ejected, pending hearing and determination of the application,” Justice James Riika said.
He also directed Kenya Ports Authority to file a replying affidavit and grounds of opposition and serve it to the sacked employees within seven days.
DEACTIVATED FROM SYSTEM
The judge directed the parties to appear before him on July 24 for hearing.
The dismissed port workers are seeking immediate and unconditional reinstatement.
The 20 claimants who are members of Kenya Dock Workers Union want the court to declare their termination unconstitutional, illegal and unprocedural.
They want to be reinstated immediately and be activated to the firm’s system in order to gain access to port areas.
“In utter disregard of the law, the respondent deactivated the claimants from the system and as a result, the employees are not allowed to access the port or their station,” part of the suit read.
They argued that Kenya Ports Authority summarily dismissed them from employment without following the required process.
The employees went on strike on June 27 protesting against the introduction of the digital system of entering and leaving the port.
