Business Daily (Nairobi)
15 May 2008
editorial
When President Kibaki assented to the five labour-related laws late last year, workers cheered while most employers whined.
Enacting the laws was a noble cause - to improve the working conditions for millions of workers, whose efforts determine the direction of the economy.
However, there was every reason for employers, under their lobby, Federation of Kenya Employers, to be furious. The latter's argument was the climbing costs of doing business and they would welcome a move to reduce the load. Thus, any additional expenditure, as expected from the implementation of the laws, would be a turn-off to them.
The furore over the laws namely the Employment Act, Labour Relations Act, Labour Institutions Act, Occupational Health and Safety Act and Work Injury Benefits Act has seen a delay in execution.
Our concern now is that as some employers continue to oppose the laws, some of their colleagues have taken up the new rules, to the benefit of workers.
At a time when Kenyans are grappling with high inflation informed by the surging food and fuel prices, the best news to a worker is an employer doing something to cushion them from the hard knocks.
At no one time should labour, a key factor of production, be compromised in the name of reducing operational costs. But the Government must also show commitment and lower the cost of production by for example offering cheaper electricity, improving infrastructure and ensuring a stable political environment. Until that is done, it will be a matter of time before industrial unrest slows down the blossoming economy.
As the Ministry of Labour, FKE and Cotu head to Mombasa this evening for a workshop to discuss the implementation of the laws, Kenyans will not accept anything short of an agreeable way forward on the rules.
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