KCB staff dig in on ‘punitive’ job evaluation

KCB KENCOM HOUSE

Kenya Commercial Bank’s staff union has up to November to negotiate a deal with the lender over what it says is an oppressive performance tool.

According to the general secretary of the Banking Insurance and Finance Union, Isaiah Kubai, the balanced scorecard as set by the bank could be abused to punish workers and even deny them loans.

“We are not fighting the performance tool. We also want to perform, but we do not want a case where the BSC (balance scorecard) is used to penalise employees,” said Mr Kubai.

Since last year, KCB has withdrawn employee benefits after the labour tiff with its unionisable staff over the performance measuring tool.

According to documents seen by The Standard, a court order blocking KCB from implementing the tool was issued on August 18 after the union went to court.

“Unionisable staff shall not be appraised as at the end of quarter 3, 2017,” the memo read.

“Subsequently, some of the provisions of the group performance management policy and group staff performance bonus policy will not be applicable to the aforementioned unionisable staff.”

The litigation has caused a backlash at Kenya’s biggest lender, which has halted salary advance loans to unionisable staff.

The employees have also been denied bonuses and a freeze has been imposed on staff loans, including those that had been approved but had not been disbursed in full.

KCB loans to staff have shrunk from Sh18.8 billion in the first half of last year to Sh13.3 billion in the six months to June.

Last year, the union took the bank to court over change of their contract terms that introduced a clause requiring that any pay increase for employees be based on performance as opposed to annual collective bargaining agreement with the union.

The contracts that also abolished overtime payment to staff were introduced in a restructuring that rebranded the lender from Kenya Commercial Bank Ltd to KCB Bank Kenya Plc.

KCB issued 2,500 employees with new appointment letters that were due to take effect in January this year but were blocked by the Employment and Labour Relations Court in February last year.

In the long-running tiff, the union last year had obtained orders stopping termination of any of its members based on the controversial quarterly performance reviews.

However, the bank, in a rejoinder, accused the union of misleading the court. “The ex parte orders issued on March 20, 2018, affect the management staff of the KCB Group in different countries and/or jurisdictions constituting of 2,279 employees whose performance has been evaluated in line with the respective banks’ policy…and more so they are not party to this suit,” argued the bank in its affidavit challenging the order.

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