Firm raises workers' pay by 31 per cent
Japan International Cooperation Agency deputy resident representative Tom Nitta (left) hands over vehicle keys to Kenya Wildlife Services Deputy Director John Muhanga at their headquarters in Nairobi yesterday. The keys were for a bus and two four-wheel drive cars donated by the agency to the wildlife organisation, along with three computers and a digital camera.
Unionisable workers of Bamburi Cement's subsidiary, Baobab Farm, have been awarded a 31-per cent pay increase under a collective bargaining agreement signed yesterday.
Baobab is carrying out an extensive restructuring exercise that covers 71 employees who are members of the Kenya Plantations and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU).
The total increment for the workers comes to 44 per cent because of another pay increase effected in September last year. The latest pay increase follows a job evaluation exercise conducted in December 2003.
The signing ceremony was attended by KPAWU general secretary, Francis Atwoli, who is also the head of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU), Baobab Farm general manager, Dr Paula Kahumbu, and the Federation of Kenya Employers senior principal and industrial relations officer, Jason Namasake.
Baobab was initially set up as a gardening department in 1966 in Mombasa, but has, over the years, evolved into a fully-fledged company, overseeing rehabilitation of all Bamburi's limestone quarries and recreating ecosystems like Haller Park (formerly known as Bamburi Nature Trail) and Forest Trails, which are tourist attractions.
