- It alluded to raising operation capital, minimise energy cost and cut the payroll by a further 220 workers to turn around its fortunes
East African Portland Cement Company plans to send home all of its employees in its new restructuring plan.
A letter from Acting managing director to employees seen by the Star reveals the financial strain at the firm which is now incurring a daily loss of Sh8 million.
According to the letter, the company’s market share has reduced in the past three years, impacting negatively on sales and subsequent profitability.
In the letter, Ag MD Stephen Kyalo Nthei says the firm is now faced with the need to restructure its operations, which will include a staff rationalisation programme to balance the institution's running costs and levels of productivity.
"This process will, unfortunately, render jobs redundant. In the spirit of fairness and in regard of the service rendered by the affected staff, this exercise will be dome within the provisions of Section 40 of Employment Act," Nthei said.
The management, therefore, plans to declare all positions at the company redundant and employees released.
"Subsequently, all jobs will be declared redundant and all employees released in line with the restructured and leaner organisation structure," Nthei said.
The restructuring plan will cover both unionisable and non-unionnisable cadres across the board.
In June, the partly State-owned firm, which has been performing dismally drastically reducing its share in a rabidly competitive market space, said it needs Sh17 billion to return to profit-making.
It alluded to raising operation capital, minimise energy cost and cut the payroll by a further 220 workers to turn around its fortunes.
The firm’s losses widened by 30.7 per cent to Sh1.26 billion in six months to December 2018 as revenues more than halved.
The loss, up from Sh969.5 million loss posted in a similar period in 2017, reverses the June 2018 full-year profit of Sh7.79 billion that came as a result of booking Sh11.34 billion gain on land revaluation.
In May, the board replaced managing director Peter ole Nkeri with Stephen Kyalo Nthei in an acting capacity in a bid to re-engineer performance and increase the dwindling company production.