Kenya Airways pilots are expected to resume their duties today, November 9 after the association leadership called off the strike on Tuesday.
The message to the pilots who lay down their tools on Saturday came after the Employment and Labour Relations Court issued orders requiring pilots to resume work, after a four-day protest against alleged intimation, victimisation and violation of remuneration.
The court also directed the company leadership not to victimise or take any disciplinary action against KALPA members.
“In that respect and after consultation with members, KALPA hereby withdraws the Notice of Industrial Action issued on 19th October, 2022. Our members shall resume duty by0600hrs EAT on Wednesday, November 9, 2022,” says the statement issues by the pilots association, KALPA.
KALPA General Secretary, Murithi Nyaga also apologised to the passengers.”
The disruption and inconvenience to passengers is indeed regrettable. KALPA members will do their best to restore normalcy to operations, ” he said in his statement.
The statement by the association leader was followed by doughts over whether they would heed the court directives to resume work. Levi Munyeri, the KALPA lawyer promised to talk to the pilots into abandoning the strike, despite the fact that the court had not addressed all the concerns brought up by her clients.
“We are going to look at those issues and we will do our best to ensure there is compliance with the court order so that the stalemate can end and the aviation industry in this country can resume normalcy,” he said. He appealed to the two parties to start a process of honest negotiations as ordered by the court to normalise the situation.
Kenya Airways chief executive Allan Kilavuka welcomed the court’s decision as good for the aviation industry though a lot has been lost over the last four days.
“We thank the Court for the expeditious ruling that now allows KQ to resume its normal operations. We commit to complying with the Court’s directions,” he said in his statement.
“We sincerely apologise to all our passengers and cargo customers for the inconvenience and disruption. We assure them that we will do everything possible to return to normalcy in the shortest time.”
He said however, that recovery “will require the airline to re-double its efforts to restructure, lower costs and increase staff productivity as well as recover the time, money and reputation lost”.
The four-day strike saw the airline suspend flights to three quarters of its destinations while on others, the flights were reduced.
-URN
