Simon and Sarah Kabu of Bonfire Adventures have been exploiting their employees by subjecting them to ludicrous penalties that the ‘Range Rover’ gifting couple amend at will, Kahawa Tungu has learnt.
According to an internal dated October 4, 2017, money lost by the company due to a staff member’s omission will be recovered from their monthly salary.
The tours and travel company deducts a maximum of Sh15,000, penalty money and the unpaid balance carried forward to the next month.
For example, a Bonfire employee is penalized Sh2,000 for having their mobile phone on their desk during working hours because personal phones ‘lead to distraction from one’s official duties.’
An employee is not allowed to make personal calls using the company airtime as one will be required to pay back ten times the cost incurred.
A negative review on their social media platforms is also punishable, we have learnt. For every negative review, an employee has to part with at least Sh5,000.
Failure to call clients immediately and follow up on them at least three times per month attracts a penalty of Sh4,000 per client, the memo indicates.
But the CEO, Simon says that the company is results oriented hence the penalties, adding that their employees are also well rewarded for work well done.
“If you do not work you are penalised for not not working… If you work you are rewarded for it. If a client complains that you refused to handle or you mishandled him or her you are penalised for it. If we do not penalise, our company would loose all clients and staff would move to other companies,” Mr Kabu said.
A source intimated to Kahawa Tungu that as the couple holidays in Dubai, their employees are left behind to ‘slave.’
“There are employees who work to pay back. Someone has 93,000 amount in penalties, another 77,000. It goes on and on,” the source said.
“Policies are policies and must be followed and I can only work with people who carry my dream and I can’t have lazy people or people who do not respect clients or who manhandles clients,” the CEO countered.
The Kabu’s have also been accused of not paying their staff their January salaries. Apparently, they only received last month’s pay on February 10, and even then, it was paid in half followed by the famous ‘HIYO INGINE BAADAYE.’
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But this was not the first time their pay was delayed, the source continues.
“While they have fun on the high seas, collecting awards for the company, it is to our own detriment and suffering.”
Mr Kabu has also insisted that his company pays salaries by the 5th of every month. In fact, he says, even his salary is sometimes delayed.
Bonfire staffers, he tells Kahawa Tungu receive car loans and are now partnering with another for Bonfire village where everyone will own a house.
The accusations, he says are from the non-performers trying to tarnish their brand.
“If someone is unhappy then we have an open day policy where someone can just leave, ” he says, adding that in 2017, the company had over 40 employees and only lost two.
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