Nairobi, June 30 -- The Employment and Labour Relations Court has tightened the legal threshold for laying off workers, ruling that employers must prove a redundancy is genuine and fairly select and consult affected employees before implementing job cuts.

The court made the ruling after finding that Nokia Solutions and Networks Kenya unlawfully declared senior employee Byron Otega redundant, ordering the telecommunications firm to pay him Sh9.8 million in compensation.

The judgment held that employers cannot simply cite restructuring or reorganisation to justify redundancies. Instead, they must demonstrate that a valid operational requirement has genuinely rendered an employee's role unnecessary and comply with the mandatory safeguards ...