Recent headlines claim that Unilever Tea Kenya (UTK) plans to let go of 11,000 workers out of the 16,000 employees it has.
However, the director of corporate affairs at Unilever Tea East Africa Joseph Sunday said the exercise, which is part of a restructuring process will be a Voluntary Early Retirement (VER) scheme which will also target workers who are close to the retirement age.
Nevertheless, the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union has criticised Unilever over these plans. The Union said the lay off plans are against labour laws and the workers are warranted to benefits and has submitted a petition to the Employment and Labour Relations Court. The court has stopped the exercise until the petition is heard and determined from August 14.
“[The union] strongly condemns Unilever Tea Kenya for engaging in corporate greed and jeopardising over 11,000 unionised workers’ jobs through a separation exercise that only targets unionised employees,” said the Union’s secretary general Meshack Khisa.
Khisa also said there is no economic reason for the tea company to carry out a voluntary early retirement scheme because neither the business nor the supply of raw material has not been affected in any way.
The VER Package
The company has said it will offer an attractive package to employees who accept its offer. The package includes “a severance pay of 23 days for every completed year of service, notice pay in accordance with terms of service, any outstanding leave days and one way bus fare as per the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).”
“We can confirm that some employees were informed of their eligibility to take part in a VER but any reports of mass layoffs are completely inaccurate. This VER is primarily aimed at employees close to retirement, who are offered the choice to apply for early retirement with an attractive benefits package,” Unilever said in a statement.
In the meantime however, the company has stopped the process in line with the court’s orders according to UTK’s social impact director Joseph Mitei.
“We respect the court and so we have suspended the plan until the case is heard and determined,” he said.
