E.A Portland Cement withdraws circular announcing retrenchment of all its employees

East African Portland Cement says it has “withdrawn” its earlier communication, which revealed its plan of sacking all its 800 employees due to tough economic times.

In a Thursday statement signed by the firm’s Managing Director, Stephen Nthei, the cement manufacturer says “a fresh, replacement notice, on the intended company restructuring and staff rationalisation, shall be circulated in due course.”

Earlier Wednesday, the company announced that it had reached a decision to lay off all its employees beginning early September, 2019.

The company said for the last six years, they have been struggling financially, hence it was not possible for them to continue paying its employees’ salaries.

In a statement dated August 7, 2019, the company said they are suffering an average of Ksh8 million in losses daily.

“The company is now faced with the need to restructure its operations, which will include a staff rationaliasation programme to balance the institution’s running costs and current levels of productivity,” said the cement manufacturer in a statement signed by the acting managing director.

“As a result of the restructuring programme, all positions in the company will be declared redundant and employees released,” says East African Portland Cement.

East Africa Portland Cement started sending home its employees in 2016, when they were undergoing financial bottlenecks due to unresponsive market.

The firm posted a loss Ksh1.26 billion in six months to December 2018, up from Ksh969.5 million loss posted in a similar period in 2017.