Labour CS Ukur Yattani has formed a conciliation committee to steer talks between the Kenya Aviation Workers Union and the Kenya Airports Authority.
The CS says the three-member team should report back to him within 30 days.
The committee will be chaired by Shariff Abdulkadir Shariff who will be assisted by Dr Justus Nasirembe and Linus Kariuki.
“I call upon the union to call off the strike and resume work as ordered by the court without further delay,” Yattani said.
He spoke in Nairobi shortly after normalcy started returning at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after a chaotic morning marred with delayed flights.
According to the CS, the strike was illegal as a court order was issued on Tuesday evening suspending it pending an inter-partes hearing on Friday.
“Non-observation of the court order issued yesterday will result in penal consequences including contempt proceedings which might create an undesirable atmosphere for the conciliatory process,” said the CS.
The workers’ boycott resulted in a ten-hour morning wave flight disruption on Wednesday.
Kenya Airways chief executive Sebastian Mikosz said 26 flights were disrupted – two of which were international arrivals that were consequently diverted to other airports.
Flight KQ349 from Khartoum had been diverted to Kilimanjaro but arrived in Nairobi at 5.17 am.
Another flight KQ505 from Accra that had been diverted to Mombasa, arrived at JKIA at 5.59 am.
The strike at JKIA had a ripple effect in the other local airports of Eldoret, Kisumu and Mombasa leaving hundreds of passengers for hours on end.
Mikosz apologised to the affected passengers over the delays and asked them to check with their respective flights on the rescheduled departure times.
KAWU Secretary General Moss Ndiema and four other union officials were arrested over the chaos.
