Telkom Kenya has sent a notice to its employees indicating that following the joint venture with Airtel they will be discontinuing the transferred business departments. As a consequence, they will terminate the employees who are currently deployed to serve in the said departments. They also indicated that employees who provide administrative and support services are likely to be impacted.
The two companies had indicated in February that they will merge their Mobile, Enterprise and Carrier Services businesses in Kenya to operate under a joint venture company called Airtel-Telkom. The Communications Authority had earlier this month indicated that they will approve the merger should there be no objections by mid-August.
The telco has stated that in accordance with the provisions of Section 40 of the Employment Act 2007, they have notified the Communications Workers Union of their intention to lay off workers. They have also sent the affected employees letters giving them a one month notice with effect from July 31,2019.
The business which will not be transferred will be retained in a redefined Telkom organization along with human resources that will be required by the organization. As such these employees will not be declared redundant.
Telkom has also indicated that they will be offering employment to some of the employees who have been declared redundant. However, this will be subject to the positions which will be available in the new organization and whether the individuals will be able to meet the recruitment criteria.