Even senior members of staff at the academy that hold contrary opinions against that of the management are victimized and threatened with dire consequences. The bad blood between one teacher, Ann Waithera and the management was a result of a report she filed during a meeting held on 28th August 2017 on academic matters where she told the CEO that her management style had led to the poor performance of the school, the CEO did not take her report kindly, she was dismissed
By The Weekly Vision
All is not well at the MPESA Foundation Academy as senior members of staff continue to suffer in silence. It was not until one Ann Waithera Muchoki went to court to demand compensation from the academy over what she claimed was the unlawful termination of her contract that many suffering staff members came out in the open to speak against the mistreatment by the management.
Senior members of staff at the academy that hold contrary opinions against that of the management are victimized and threatened with dire consequences. The bad blood between Ann Waithera and the management was a result of a report she filed during a meeting held on 28th August 2017 on academic matters where she boldly told the CEO that the management style had led to the poor performance of the school. The CEO did not take her report kindly, blaming her for making the report public; she was not supposed to publicly disclose the school’s performance.
Waithera went to court alleging unlawful dismissal, constructive demotion and unfair labour practices. She was employed by MPESA Foundation Academy as Senior Teacher in 2016 and was subsequently promoted to the position of Deputy Head Academics earning a six-figure monthly salary. Because of her dedication and hard work, the rest of the teachers voted for her as their representative on the Board of Governors. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) asked her to take charge of Academics and was later appointed Acting Head of Academics and was in charge of Academics, Admissions, Student Life and Humanities.
Unfortunately for her, the Human Resource Manager later proposed a new job description, lower in rank than the position she held earlier via email and gave her two days off to think through it in readiness for a meeting to discuss the same. She attended the meeting with the CEO and the Human Resource Manager who gave her the demotion letter which she declined to sign and was dismissed on 15th September, 2017 on claims that she was uncommitted, unmotivated and lacked leadership and her team had raised issues.
A ruling by Judge Dr David Gakeri dated 15th March 2023, reads in part “Having found that termination of the Claimant’s employment was substantively and procedurally unfair, the Claimant is entitled to compensation under the provisions of Section 49(1)(c) of the Employment Act subject to the provisions of Section 49(4) of the Act”. The ruling further reads “In light of the foregoing, the court is satisfied that the equivalent of 3 months gross salary is fair. In the upshot, judgment is entered for the Claimant against the Respondent to pay equivalent of 3 months’ salary”.
