Kenya: Orange CEO Commends COWU for Choosing Dialogue Over Strike
By NewsfromAfrica
Nairobi--Integrated telecommunications service provider, Orange, in reaction to the strike notice recently issued and subsequently called off by the Communication Workers’ Union of Kenya (COWU) commended the Union and its Secretary General for the prudent action, which will enable dialogue as provided for by the Recognition Agreement that guides dispute resolution between the parties.
Chief Executive Officer, Mickael Ghossein, pointed out that the intended strike would have short-circuited the dialogue process agreed on between the parties. “The Union made known its grievances to the Management of Telkom Kenya and we initiated the dispute resolution process. The strike notice issued by the Union disregarded the recognition agreement and we are grateful for the intervention by the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development in asking COWU to suspend the strike indefinitely, in order to pursue dialogue to its conclusion.”
Under the Recognition Agreement, between Telkom Kenya and COWU, the parties agree that until the procedure is fully utilised and exhausted, no lock-out of withdrawal of labour will take place.
COWU states, as its grievances, unfair termination of staff on short-term contracts, non-payment of overtime and unrealistic and unattainable targets imposed on them.
Countering these claims, Ghossein says, “No employee has been terminated unfairly. The specific contracts of the Direct Sales Agents being referred to were fixed term contracts, which were set to end on 15thMay 2013.On expiry of these contracts, renewal depends on performance and business needs.”
“Payment of overtime is clearly stipulated in the collective bargaining agreement and we have been paying overtime based on the claims approved and presented through the established Company procedure.”
“Many of our employees have been achieving their targets and those in sales have been earning their sales commissions. We not received any complaints from staff regarding their targets.”
Telkom Kenya and COWU will continue dialogue with the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development acting as conciliator between the parties and Telkom Kenya’s Chief Executive is confident that a cordial resolution will be reached.