More than 1,000 employees working for tea companies in Nandi have lost their jobs over five months, the Kenya Plantation Agricultural Workers Union has said.
KPAWU Nandi officials said multinational tea firms are sacking workers for participating in a strike that led to burning of tea farms last year.
“There has been a systematic sacking of employees in what looks like payback following the destruction of property five months ago,” KPAWU Nandi secretary Eliachim Ochieng said. He said the workers went on strike after the companies refused to pay them as ordered by the Labour and Industrial Court.
“The workers had the right to picket and it’s unfair that the companies are now targeting them individually. Our records indicate contracts of more than 1,000 workers have been terminated.
Nandi has more than 20,000 tea estate workers. Ochieng said they have asked Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter and Governor Cleophas Lagat to intervene. The union has also written to Cotu boss Francis Atwoli.
Keter said he would help. “We have written to tea companies to reinstate sacked workers,” Ochieng said. Tea firm officials declined to comment.
