County Government Workers Union threaten to sue SRC over pay-rise
Grace Muturi-Nairobi County Government Workers Union Women leader, Calvince Okello-Secretary City Branch and Festus Ngari- Secretary Staff Branch during a press briefing on August 15, 2023.
The Kenya County Government Workers Union (KCGWU) has threatened to sue the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) for excluding workers from the defunct local authorities in the latest salary review that saw the salaries for the civil servants increased by 7 to 10 percent.
In a statement, the Secretary for KCGWU in Nairobi Calvince Okello said the commission has discriminated against the county employees from the 47 counties by failing to include them in the latest advisory.
“We want to tell the SRC that they cannot continue with their discrimination against the employees of the defunct local authorities every time that they want to give the advisories. They are Kenyans just like every other public officer and deserve the right to be cushioned against the adverse effects of the high cost of living.
Mr Okello also said the commission has continuously ignored the efforts by the county workers to renew the salaries of the county employees for the past ten years although it reviews salaries of other public servants after every four years.
“They have thwarted all the efforts to review the collective bargaining agreement for the defunct local authorities now for the 12 years against the recommended 4 years cycle. If they do not take our views into consideration and consider the county workers, we will then proceed to court,” he added.
SRC chairperson Lyn Mengich had last week announced a salary review for all the civil servants who are expected to receive a 7-10 percent salary increase over a two-year period. Ms Mengich also said that the National Treasury had allocated Sh27.1 billion for the financial year 2023/2024.
The pay increase is expected to be backdated to the month of July.
At the same time, the workers have claimed that a number of faceless cartels are out to destabilise Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja following the ongoing probe at the county government.
The union says the Nairobi City County government employees have had a good working relationship with the Mr Sakaja who has been releasing their salaries on time and is in the process of releasing Sh1billion statutory deductions owed by the previous regimes.
According to Festus Ngari, the Secretary General in Nairobi, investigative authorities are being used to destabilized Mr Sakaja who has already been in in office for only one year.
“We have seen that the faceless cartels in conjunction with the rogue county officials who have destabilised previous regimes with their insatiable appetite for squandering public finance for their benefit are back. We urge the investigative authorities not to be used to cause disharmony in the county,” Mr Ngari said.
