Kenya Plantation & Agricultural Workers Union v Rioki Estates Ltd [2014] KEELRC 1447 (KLR)

The Employment Act, 2007 came into operation on 2 June 2008, six years after the Grievants were declared redundant in 2002. The court held that a cause of action must be governed by the law in force at the time, so the repealed Employment Act cap 226 (including section 16A on redundancy conditions) and the Trade Disputes Act applied. The CBA produced by the Union was signed in 2005 and took effect from 1 January 2005, so it could not govern the 2002 redundancies.

Section 16A of the repealed Employment Act prescribed conditions to be complied with before declaring redundancy. The Respondent, which did not call any witnesses, failed to demonstrate compliance with those conditions. The court found that the admitted reason for the redundancy (inability to pay wages due to mismanagement) did not excuse non-compliance with the statutory conditions, and on that ground alone the redundancies were unlawful.

The Respondent asserted that the Grievants had sued in Nairobi High Court Civil Suit No. 200 of 2003, transferred to the Industrial Court as Cause No. 1054 of 2014. The court observed that copies of the pleadings in that suit were not placed before it to confirm the cause of action was the same. It noted that if the causes were the same, the current Cause would be an abuse of process and the older suit should proceed. It nonetheless directed a copy of the judgment be placed in Cause No. 1054 of 2014.

The parties had gone through conciliation before the trade dispute, and the Conciliator, a Labour Officer presumed versed in employment matters, recommended that the 15 Grievants be paid terminal benefits. The Respondent never explained whether it rejected the recommendations, having only claimed it sought to pay in instalments. In those circumstances the court adopted and upheld the recommendations and made awards in the sums computed.