Moi University has been ordered to withdraw letters of termination issued to lecturers and non-teaching staff in May.
Employment and Labour Relations court judge Maureen Onyango said the university declared the redundancies before meaningful consultations with respective unions were concluded.
The judge, however, said the debt-ridden university was free initiate fresh redundancy notices, in compliance with the Employment Act.
The troubled institution had started plans of laying off lecturers and non-teaching staff over financial constraints and declining student population.
The court was informed that there were plans to lay off 120 members of the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) and 390 members of the Kenya Universities Staff Union (Kusu).
“It is my finding that in this case the Respondent (Moi University) declared the employees redundant before meaningful consultations were held. It is on record that the Claimants (the unions) moved with speed after receiving notification of redundancy to engage the Respondent in consultations,” said the judge in a judgment on July 11.
UASU told the court that it asked for information on the impending redundancies, to enable them participate effectively in the consultations, but the information was not forthcoming until May 30, when the university had issued the letters of redundancy.
“The court finds that the letters of redundancy were issued in bad faith, when the court had sent the parties to carry out further consultations and after Counsel for the respondent assured the court and the other parties that they were not going to issue any letters before the return date given by the court,” said the judge.
Justice Onyango said the employees to be released on redundancy should be paid their dues in the manner provided in section 40(1) of the Employment Act.
The judge acknowledged that it was matter of public knowledge that the university has not been doing very well, adding that the court had no doubt that it was necessary to carry out the redundancies.
However, the notice should indicate the extent of the intended redundancy- by how many employees are involved or likely to be involved and in what categories and also indicate timelines.
The court said an open-ended notice was not a valid notice as the unions and their members had no clue when the redundancy letters would be issued.
Moi University defended the redundancies arguing that the student population had reduced from about 50,000 students to 20,000.
The university said it had also closed some of its campuses such as Kericho, Kitale, Nakuru and Odera Akang’o, due to reduced number of students and after closing the campuses, the staff were deployed back to the main campus.
Moi University tabled a report by Auditor General showing a drop in capitation of about 30 percent from 3.44 to 2.43 billion.
The university added that redundancy is one of the legally recognised mechanisms to prudently assist an institution struggling to meet its contractual obligations as the employer.
Through lawyer Titus Koceyo, Uasu submitted that the university has an approved establishment of 1,148 lecturers and the current number was only 816 staff.
He said reducing the number will give the retained staff too much work and also affect the staff/student ratio against the requirements of the Commission for University Education Universities Standards and Guidelines.
Mr Koceyo added that sometimes last year, the arties executed a Return to Work Formula which cured any financial difficulties as the university identified a recovery strategy, but which it failed to implement.
