Tuskys Supermarket has been making the front page news recently, and not for a good reason, a quick stop at their stores and the shelves are empty, I couldn't even get a chocolate bar at the Tuskys Thika Chania branch. The retailer is hauled up in court over pay cuts and suppliers debt and Tuskys Chief Executive Dan Githua has openly admitted that only the lord can save one of the largest supermarket chains in the Great Lakes Area.
From bad management to the financial constrains left behind by the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the restrictions to curb the killer disease, the retailer is on life support. The Employment and Labour Relations Court has forced Tuskys to negotiate planned pay cuts with staff after the retailer’s unionized employees challenged the nature of salary reductions effected in April.
However, to make matters work, behind the scenes, Tuskys employees are actually being forced into taking unpaid leave. Managers, supervisors, administrators, and outsourced employees are being laid off in what the company terms as the inability to pay due to financial constraints
A spot check on the career page on Tuskys' official Job portal shows that the same positions the employees are being relieved off are being advertised through these links Currently, on its deathbed, the supermarket continues to warn of more brutal measures as an alternative to cuts on staff pay including the closure of more branches and more redundancies as it sighted unforeseeable and unavoidable acts of God/ force majeure in its prompt cut to salaries.
Why management is sending employees on unpaid leave and advertising their jobs, they say is lost on them.
So far, Tuskys has closed four branches including Digo Road (Mombasa), Kitale Mega and Tom Mboya (Nairobi), and Mtwapa Chap Chap (Kilifi).
Ironically, Tuskys’ which once offered to bail out Nakumatt and Ukwala supermarkets which both later collapsed is currently in that same position.