Companies
Court upholds firing of former Fairview CEO for insulting juniors
Tuesday March 07 2023
Labour Court Judge Justice James Rika during a past hearing. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NMG
The Labour court has upheld the sacking of the former chief executive officer of Fairview Hotel, Mohsine Korich, who was fired in December 2017 over his temperament and insulting junior employees.
Justice James Rika held that the firing of Mr Korich was justifiable and met procedural fairness.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court judge said Mr Korich was found to be short-tempered and incompatible with his junior and senior colleagues.
He further said the former CEO was reasonably accommodated and taken through counselling, but “in the end, he remained unmanageable”.
“There is evidence on record that the claimant (Mr Korich) was unable to fit in with the corporate culture of the respondent. He did not fit in with those above him and those below him. He insulted them all and showed respect to none,” the judge said.
Mr Korich told the court that he had worked for Fairview for 27 years, seven of which he was the CEO until he was fired on December 5, 2017.
The court noted that Mr Korich, a foreigner, was unhappy with the hiring of Ross Thomson as the assistant general manager food and beverage, whom he considered a young South African expatriate, ‘not suitable to serve as second in command, in a labour market where there were better qualified indigenous Kenyans’.
Mr Korich admitted some of the accusations against him and asked to be pardoned but declined to appear for a disciplinary hearing, even after it was rescheduled on three occasions.
The former CEO said he did not appear for the hearing because he was denied access to his office, his witness was allegedly fired, and he did not like the choice of an external lawyer to chair the panel.
The judge noted that no other employee could competently and objectively have chaired the proceedings, given that the dispute involved him and other senior employees.
“The court is not able to fault the respondent, on substantive justification or procedural fairness, in the termination of the claimant’s contract of employment,” the judge said.
