December 13, 2024

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Communications Authority barred from filling vacant slots

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The Employment and Labour Relations Court has stopped the Communications Authority (CA) from carrying out interviews and filling 43 vacant positions.

 Justice Monica Mbaru issued the temporary order pending the hearing and determination of a petition filed by Manyara Muchui Antony who claimed there was unfair advantage to CA staff.

The authority had advertised the positions of Director Frequency Spectrum Management and Director Competition Management.

 In addition, CA had issued an internal advertisement inviting applications in respect to 43 vacant positions to be filled by internal competition.

The recruitment was to follow the new Human Resource Policies and guidelines that were prepared and prescribed to the authority by the State Corporations Advisory Committee.

 In particular, the policies require that all serving and prospective employees from the position of Assistant Manager and above have a minimum qualification of a Master’s Degree.

Additionally, the position requires the applicants to have undertaken supervisory or management courses lasting not less than two and four weeks respectively.

Through lawyer Henry Kurauka, the petitioner argued that the scheduled training of staff was discriminatory against members of staff who would not have undergone the training before the adverts for the vacant positions were closed.

“The training schedule gives unfair advantage to the staff whose training has been timed to take place before the deadline for the submissions of the applications,” he argues.