Cotu secretary general Francis Atwoli has told an industrial court that Unilever Tea Company has subjected dismissed workers to untold suffering after eviction orders were issued against them.
In a supporting affidavit filed in court, Atwoli said Unilever has subjected a group of workers dismissed on allegations of violating an agreement to a lot of suffering, family separation and mental torture. The court heard that the Kericho-based tea company dismissed a group of workers on diverse dates between November 2013 and April 2014 on allegations of violating a document termed as Code of Business Principles.
The tea company is also accused of evicting the workers from their residential quarters, while fully aware that they were planning to appeal against the dismissal.
Atwoli said that grounds for dismissal of the workers are suspect as they do not impact on the employer-employee relationship and no terms of service that bound the parties were breached. He averred that the impending dispute could be subjected to reconciliation under the law pertaining to labour relations to resolve both the eviction and dismissal.
The Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union on Thursday moved to the industrial court to stop the eviction orders by the tea company claiming the code of business principles was not brought to the attention of the employees.
The union’s lawyer Mutua Muli told Justice Byram Ongaya that the dismissal raised serious issues which if not addressed, amount to injustice as the dismissal do not conform to the law.
Justice Ongaya granted the application and stopped the company from evicting the dismissed workers pending hearing and determination of the application.