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Kenya: Parties Near Accord On New Labour Laws
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Business Daily (Nairobi)
19 May 2008
Posted to the web 19 May 2008
Mwaura Kimani
Employers and labour officials have inched closer to agreeing on the implementation of five new labour laws, giving fresh impetus to a process that has been stuck in controversy.
In what could be good news to millions of workers, most of who are caught up in a dilemma over the execution of the laws, the key players met for a third day in Mombasa to set rules which will guide the implementation.
The outcome of the meeting, which ends tomorrow, will see the setting up of various institutions and gazettement of the members, heralding full implementation of the laws, which were approved by President Kibaki in September last year to help root out practices considered oppressive to employees.
The laws are the Employment Act, the Labour Relations Act, Labour Institutions Act, Occupational Health and Safety Act and Work Injury Benefits Act. They were to take effect from March 1.
Among the provisions which have drawn controversy include one contained in the Work Injury Benefits Act requiring employers to take insurance policies against injuries for all employees. The Law Society of Kenya has moved to court to challenge it.
Previously, a beneficiary had to be a worker earning Sh33, 333 a month, but the current Act accommodates all employees. Part V Section 30 of the Work Injury Benefits Act says that compensation for permanent disablement shall be calculated on the basis of earnings for 96 months subject to the minimum and maximum amounts determined by the Minister of Labour.
But even as the labour market awaits the establishment of the institutions, most private sector employers are already executing the laws, although their lobby is opposed to the move, citing retrogressive implementation and increased labour costs. Officials of the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE), Ministry of Labour and the workers umbrella body Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu), who are locked in a row over the new laws are attending the seminar.
Some of those who talked to Business Daily expressed hope of the laws becoming fully operational within the next one month. Although the laws promise a boon to millions of Kenyan workers, providing for a wide range of measures aimed at improving working conditions, they come at an additional cost for employers.
This has seen the Kenya Association of Manufacturers raise a red flag over the burden of the surging cost of production. A senior official at the Ministry of Labour said that after the workshop, the institutions could be set early next week.
"By tomorrow, we hope to finalise with the rules and regulations of implementing the laws as well as agree on the formation of the proposed bodies whose members will be picked from the key players," said the labour official.
"We are concerned that no time was given to all parties and institutions to understand the laws and to assess how they will affect them", Jacqueline Mugo, FKE executive director, told reporters.
Among other things, the five labour laws will see the expansion of the Industrial Court's mandate to hear appeals against decisions of the Registrar of Trade Unions.
Other institutions to be formed include subordinate labour courts, the National Labour Board and Wage Setting Councils, the Committee of Inquiry, the Labour Department, the Employment Department and Employment Agencies.
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FKE has contested the retrogressive implementation of the laws in court and obtained leave to file a case while Cotu and the ministry have applauded the five pieces of legislation.
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