Port workers to down tools in pay row

More than 5,000 workers at East Africa’s biggest port are set to down their tools over a pay rise dispute with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

The Dock Workers Union (DWU) has issued a seven-day strike notice barely a month after the Labour and Social Welfare Committee of the National Assembly ordered the SRC to implement the 2020/2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The union was supposed to register the two-year CBA at the Employment and Industrial relations Court that would see the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) give the workers a 10 per cent salary raise. But DWU said it had reached a “dead end” with SRC.

“We have issued a seven-day strike notice because of the hard stance taken by management on the issue of overdue promotions. This is a protected strike notice after we reached a dead end on this matter,” DWU Secretary General Simon Sang said in a statement. The DWU boss said the workers were yet to receive a commitment letter from SRC to the KPA management on the 2020/2021 agreement.

The union said KPA had confirmed that they had no objection to overtime above 30 per cent as provided for in the human resource manual, on condition that approval is granted by the managing director.

“The sectional shop stewards are now required to take full responsibility in ensuring that requests for such overtime are made and fully processed two days before the date scheduled to undertake the overtime,” said the unionist, adding, workers “do not want to earn according to the national wages guidelines”.

“Instead, we want to rely on global port salary guidelines because we are the interface between Kenya and the world”.

In a recent interview, the unionist said his recent appointment to the Maritime Wages Council will boost port workers’ agitation for better salaries.

“It will be the entry point to bring changes and agitate (for) our salaries to match global standards.”

“We thank Parliament for issuing the directive that will see dockworkers earn more. We have been waiting eagerly for this directive,” he said.

“But Parliament said there is no law guiding SRC to stop KPA from implementing our signed CBA after (lawmakers) approved our 2021/2022 CBA.”

KPA is among institutions that were hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, with some of their workers contracting the virus.

In August, the National Assembly Committee on Labour and Social Welfare led its chairperson Wachira Kabinga, who is also the Mwea MP, met officials from SRC and DWU in Mombasa to probe delays in the implementation of the port workers’ CBA.

DWU said Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir petitioned the National Assembly to resolve the stalemate.

The union had accused SRC of delaying registration of the CBA.

The union and KPA want the CBA, which outlines a 10 per cent raise to the workers’ basic salary, to be adopted in two phases — six per cent in the first year and four per cent subsequently.

But SRC withheld approval of the agreement, arguing that the initial deal per its advice was to be implemented over four years at a standard rate of 2.5 per cent annually.

SRC told the committee that the two-year deal that KPA and the Federation of Kenyan Employers presented to the agency was an afterthought.

SRC further said that it violated the provisions of articles 230 (4) (b) and 259 (11) of the Constitution, which outline the agency’s advisory role on CBAs.

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