FKE calls for sober debate on pay increment

Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) executive director Jacqueline Mugo at the Hotel Intercontinental on February 5, 2015. She said employees in other brackets whose wages were not increased should try other avenues of getting a pay rise besides President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA 

In Summary

• The federation executive director Jacqueline Mugo said that the employees in the other brackets whose wages were not increased should try other avenues and not cling on the President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive.
• Ms Mugo said that the cost of production and the employees’ productivity in calls for a pay hike could not be wished away.
• She said that calls for a wage increase when the companies were not doing well was “unjustifiable.”

By PATRICK LANGAT
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Employers have supported President Uhuru Kenyatta’s 12 per cent minimum wage increase but said it did not apply to other employees.

The Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) said that though the increase was only meant for the lowest paid workers, most employees had already started agitating for an increase of the same percentage.

The employers, however, asked for a different approach to pay increase “outside the pressures of Labour Day” saying that had denied them a sober approach to pay hikes.

The federation executive director Jacqueline Mugo said that the employees in the other brackets whose wages were not increased should try negotiate for a rise through other avenues besides President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive on minimum wage.

EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY

“Our members have told us of an increased agitation by employees to have the 12 per cent increase as per the increase on the minimum pay,” said Ms Mugo in Kisumu yesterday.

She was addressing the media after an annual general meeting for the federation’s western Kenya branch. In the AGM, Mr Vinod Patel of Skylark Company was re-elected chairman and Mr Charles Owele of Chemelil Sugar his deputy for the western chapter of the federation.

During Labour Day celebrations on Friday last week, President Kenyatta announced a 12 per cent increase in the minimum wage bill.

“As we ask for an increase in wages, we must also talk about productivity of the employees we have and not only talk of cost of living,” said Mr Kenyatta.

Ms Mugo, who said that President Kenyatta had consulted them widely on the wage bill increase, yesterday said that Kenyans must stop asking for pay increase on Labour Day only.

“We cannot always be doing our pay reviews on Labour Day only. We all need to get off the pressure there is on that day and let us talk about the wage reviews when we have the time and when there is no pressure,” she said.

Workers under the Confederation of Trade Unions (Cotu) and the newly formed Trade Union Congress of Kenya (Tuc-ke) have used the Labour Day celebrated on May 1 to “bully” the government into agreeing to their demands of a wage increase.

This year, the unions wanted a 20 per cent minimum wage increase in what they said was an increase in the cost of living.

The unions also vehemently opposed the suggestion that the pay hike must be based on employees’ productivity.

Ms Mugo said that the cost of production and the employees’ productivity in calls for a pay hike could not be wished away.

“’Regarding the minimum wage debate, FKE reiterates calls for discussions of elements of cost of production such as enterprise performance, the need for budgeting, the state of the country’s economy and productivity,” said Ms Mugo.

UNJISTIFIED DEMANDS

She added: “These factors should not be analysed individually but collectively for the country to have a wage structure that is sustainable and agreeable,” she said.

The executive director insisted that following the president’s concern that a wage increase, must be followed by productivity increase, workers must up work harder.

She said that calls for a wage increase when the companies were not doing well was “unjustifiable.”

“We hope to see workers taking the president’s advice that better pay will easily result from better enterprise performance. When enterprise performance stagnates, calls for wage increase becomes extremely unjustifiable,” she said.