BY SAM ALFAN.
Some 52 former employees of Airtel Network have opposed merger of the company with Telkom Kenya, until a case they filed in court is concluded.
The 52 former employees through their lawyer Duncan Okatch wrote to Communication Authority informing them of the plans to oppose the said merger vehemently since they have a pending case with their former employer at the Employment and lLbour Relations court, after they sued Airtel for illegal termination.
The employees said in the letter that they worked for Airtel Kenya until January 2016 when their employment was unceremoniously terminated on account of redundancy.
“Our clients deemed their termination illegal and unprocedural and as such filed various claims at the employment and labour relations court in Nairobi challenging their termination by Airtel and owing to the similar nature of the claims the court consolidated claims under ELRC NO. 3335 of 2016”, said former employees in the letter.
The said cases are seeking compensation for unfair and illegal termination of their employment on account of regularly amounting to over Sh1 billion.
They said their effort to seek to be furnished with information regarding the said merger by Airtel are in vain and information they are eating from the media regarding the merger in intentionally scanty as it is being released economically and strategically by the both companies.
In a gazette notice No. 3155 it indicated that, upon completion of the transaction or merger, the new entity is not assuming nor does it intend to assume the liabilities incurred by the entities merging. A development that confirms beyond reasonable the fears of the former employees.
