A union has moved to court seeking to stop Tuskys supermarket from declaring 80 unionisable employees redundant for reasons related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In an application certified urgent by the Employment and Labour Relations Court, Kenya Union of Commercial, Food and Allied Workers said whereas redundancy was inevitable, the court should order Tuskys to observe the principle of last in, first out (LIFO) in the selection of employees to be affected, looking at the entire labour force including outsourced labour.
"Pending hearing and determination of this application, the court be pleased to order the supermarket to provide the applicant with the full list of their regular/direct employees, the outsourced labour, detailing their positions and dates of engagement, branch by branch, to determine the selection criteria," the union says in court documents.
It urged the court to restrain the supermarket from any acts of victimisation or intimidation during the pendency of the suit.
The matter will be heard on Wednesday.
Early this month, the retailer was under scrutiny after failing to honour payment agreement with suppliers.
Tuskys was found to have delayed payments exceeding the stipulated 90 days in a probe by the Competition Authority of Kenya.
On Wednesday last week, the retailer was given 14 days to pay Sh396.2 million owed to suppliers of fast moving consumer goods, Sh499.1 million owed to non-fast moving consumer goods and Sh400.9 million supplier debt.
According to CAK, no retailer has tendered any document indicating that their current status has been occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The documents under the custody of the authority indicate that most of the outstanding payments date back pre-Covid-19,” CAK boss Kariuki Wang'ombe told the Star.
In a statement, the authority said the current abuse of buyer power provisions gives it the muscle to deal with the delayed payment of suppliers by the retailer.
“The authority has issued prudential and reporting orders to one retailer (Tuskys) who, after several requests and extensions, failed to present a payment plan or evidence of negotiations with the affected suppliers,” Wang’ombe said in an email response.
In April, Tuskys closed three branches - Tom Mboya (Nairobi), Kitale Mega and Digo Road (Mombasa) - due to reduced customers in the wake of Covid-19, as the economy reels from effects of the virus.
Edited by Henry Makori