Woman fired for marking absent colleague present

NAIROBI, KENYA: An employee of a food export company was fired for signing her colleague as present when she was absent.

Janet Adema, who worked as a quality controller at Kenya Fresh Produce Exporters Ltd, was fired for a stroke of the pen in the company's master register.

The employee she saved from their employer's wrath allegedly admitted to a manager that the two had an agreement to share the money paid for the hours she had not worked. On March 21, 2014, Ms Adema was overseeing her colleagues who were busy packing various food products for export.

 One of them, Ruth Nthenya, told her she had been allowed to be away in the afternoon. The Employment and Labour Relations Court heard that Adema marked the register knowing that the management was aware of the absence.

She was fired the same afternoon through a letter that read: "This is because you marked a staff present when you fully knew she was not present." However, Justice Nduma Nderi found that the company depended on gossip to fire Adema.

The court heard that she had worked with the company for five years and had no record of misconduct.

Adema wanted an award of Sh400,000 but the judge topped it up with close to Sh300,000 for unfair dismissal.