What a surprise!!! You talked to a fellow who might be on the list of those to be retrenched and he was happy about RAO's move? That's surprising indeed!!!

And about interest in companies this should be investigated but should NOT be used as an excuse to stop the retrenchment [If it is the best solution].

And I would not be surprised if it is propaganda. We are dealing with people with masters in propaganda technology!

The way some people are reasoning, it is evident they have never run any sort of business - even a kiosk!

In business, one has to make tough decisions. Jobs might have to be merged, others declared unnecessary, branches closed etc. Even if you have employed your brother/sister to manage branch x as you manage branch y, if branch x is losing money, it will have to be closed. If you don't BOTH you and your brother will be jobless.

Most companies have actually introduced the concept of cost centres so that each department can justify it's existence.

If I am running an SME and make 20m a year, it doesn't mean I will not fire people. Maybe unit x made 30m profit amd unit y made 10m loss. If unit y cannot turn a profit, then it goes in as much as the "company" is making money!

You are all idiots!!....Pamba is such an astute businessman.He wines and dines and leaves the bill behind for Migooner to foot.

Almost for 10yrs now, Naikuni has grown this so called bloated !!!workforce from about 2000 to now well over 4000!!!

Retrenching staff then increasing management salaries by 24%, management takes fat salaries increasing by 24% would most likely have the same impact as keeping the employees on board. And remember their services will be outsourced, question is at what cost?
As a shareholder you look at the bottom line..... with the two 24% increase and outsourcing will it change the bottom? and by what percentage?

@Maichblack, that is for sure. Some guys are too thick to differentiate between Capital Markets and Fish Market especially if they did not finish primary school but progressed to be lecturers and professors through nepotism and cronism.

No!!!

KQ's core function is to airlift people and goods from one place to another.

Selling tickets is a support function... and it can be outsourced easily.

My 2 cents, is that it's easy to shout, "fire them all" and act all business savy and also state that this is capitalism and RAO should not impose himself (even though thats why we have politicians).
whichever way this ends ups, bottom line is families will be affected. (shareholders and/or workers, some more adverse than others.
Corporate is not socialism and this very clear, however, corporates need to exercise restraint when dealing with its workers...in actually KQ might not have the same leeway in sending home workers in it's foreign offices as that afforded back here in Kenya.

KQ's retrenchment logic appears flawed. Although RAO is also hopeless in giving management of publicly owned and listed company directions. He can only do so through Gk board representatives or apply political pressure by making relevant noise which may tempt management to reconsider. Directing is out of place.

What I find flawed is KQ retrenching and yet they took in shareholder capital to fund an expansion programme. I surely hope they are retrenching not needed skills as opposed to old staff on the payroll. If only RAO took on the board from this angle especially after government committed more money, then he would have my support.

Interesting emirates has airline staff of 251 per aircraft on the fleet, yet KQ has 151 staff / aircraft. Simplistically one would argue KQ is understaffed or will be severely understaffed if it opens all these destination. Then Management should be telling us they have skills they don't need and will not need in the near future. Otherwise I can only see witch hunting of Unionisable staff for last year's strike. What austerity measures have been undertaken over the past 12 months, they surely can't hid behind profit declines to victimize union officials or staff in the Union. I thought management told investors profits declined because of oil prices and European crisis. Why should ordinary staff pay for these business cycle events, why couldn't the board negate the 24% pay hike to senior directors. What have they done about the soaring hotel bills to the two hotels on Msa road which operate at occupancy levels of up to 105% courtesy of KQ's operational messes. The problem is KQ strategy for flying around africa using long haul set up is on most routes loss making. So even if there is growth one can argue they are buying growth. Get a low cost solution to fly to africa and don't become Vasco da gama airlines trying to fly where it doesn't make business sense all in the name of expansion!

thats a fallacy of composition.
FYI- Kq has gone ahead with the layoffs......