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Kenya: Labour Ministry Moves to Avert Strike At KPA
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Business Daily (Nairobi)
20 May 2008
Posted to the web 21 May 2008
Ben Sanga
Nairobi
The Ministry of Labour has stepped in to avert a looming strike by Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) employees. The planned strike threatens to disrupt operations at the Port of Mombasa, which is struggling to recover from the congestion crisis experienced earlier in the year due to the post-election violence.
Commissioner of Labour Isaiah Kirigua on Monday initiated moves aimed at bridging differences between the employees' union and KPA management to avert the strike that has sent shivers across the shipping industry.
Mr Kirigua brought the two sides to round table talks, with the KPA team being led by its human resource manager, Vincent wa Kayanda, while the workers' union was represented by secretary general Simon Sang'.
The workers' union and KPA are at loggerheads over what it terms as abnormal salary disparities between non-unionisable staff members and union members.
Another contentious issue, which still stands unresolved, is the new seven-day work schedule, which KPA has vowed to introduce in July despite the union's opposition.
KPA delayed the introduction of the system over what it terms as the laying of the ground where all departments were to be sensitised as they prepare for the change. KPA intends to cut down its recurrent expenditure, starting with wages currently believed to be the highest.
Under the current working arrangement, KPA pays over Sh600 million monthly in perks on top of Sh150 million it pays as salaries.
If KPA manages to force the new schedule down the throat of the union, then it would have drastically minimised on overtime payments.
The union is opposed to the work schedule, saying it goes against the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) entered by the two parties. It outlines that the normal hours of work are 40 per week made up of eight hours a day for five days.
The union also holds a view that the new work schedule would contravene International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions of which Kenya is a signatory.
In essence, the union wants the schedule scrapped and new talks resume over the matter.
Under the new schedule, all employees would be required to work for five days a week then rest for two days, which may fall on any day of the week.
But the union is fighting for the status quo that outlines that weekends automatically remain off days for all workers and that an employee who works on weekends be entitled to overtime payment. The new work formulae had received a court backing in a ruling issued by an industrial court in April last year.
Salary harmonisation
The issue, and that of salary harmonisation, led to over 4,000 unionisable KPA employees to announce their intention to down tools last week.
In an interview, Mr Sang' said the union was open for talks but stressed that the strike notice slotted to expire on May 26 still stands until KPA yields some grounds over the two issues.
He said that it is upon the Labour ministry to make sure that it beat the strike notice deadline, but as a union they were not prepared to either call off or postponed the strike.
Mr Sang' claimed that the difference between the lowest paid non-unionisable management staff member and a union member with the highest pay is 112 per cent, for the salary, and 147 per cent for house allowance, a situation he said was against international labour laws.
"This disparity is too big yet the errands of workers in the two job cadres are almost similar, only a new pay policy can address this issue," he said. "Our stand is that the new salary policy should give the highest and lowest paid members of the union an increment of 47 per cent and 74 per cent respectively. We are also demanding a house allowance increase of 101 per cent and 98 per cent for the same cadre of employees," Mr Sang' said.
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Earlier, KPA had announced a 20 per cent salary rise for its employees across the board, but the union termed the increment a drop in the ocean due to crippling inflation in the country.
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