President Kenyatta has stepped in to ensure that the much-awaited inaugural direct flight to the United States is not jeopardized by the stand-off between Kenya Airways and its workers.
State House Spokesperson Kanze Dena says the President has sought assurance from Kenya Airways' management that the stalemate will be resolved before October 28th.
“Kenya Airways has assured us that the flight will take off,” Ms Dena says.
Kenya Airways employees have threatened to strike if the airline does not agree to their demands on special pay and better working conditions for crew that will be operating the direct flights to New York.
“It’s our demand that management commits to concluding the CBA negotiations before October 28th, 2018. To that end we are calling on all our members across all sections, that is passenger services, cargo operations, passenger ramp, in-flight functions, technical, flight ops and support services, to stay away from the USA operations until further advised by the union. This call applies to our comrades in CDL as well,” the workers say.
Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia says he is confident the issue will be addressed before Sunday, when the nonstop flights will officially be launched.
“As you know discussions have been ongoing with regards to labour relations between Kenya Airways employees, management, the board and of course ourselves, as the line ministry,” says Macharia.
“We would like the management to hear all their (workers) grievances. No employee would like to blackmail his or her employer, especially when the prospects are so good-looking because if KQ does not succeed it means the competitors succeed."
The workers through their union are pushing for more crew for the nonstop flights to the US to allow for enough resting time in addition to Sh20,000 overtime allowance per hour worked outside the normal working hours.
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