Del Monte pay deal lifts staff cost by Sh61m

Corporate News

The Thika plantation is the company’s sole facility in Africa that supplies pineapple products to its global operations spanning more than 100 countries around the globe. PHOTO | FILE 

By DAVID HERBLING, hdavid@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• Del Monte Kenya workers receive a pay raise of between nine and seven per cent, in addition to improved allowances.

Fruit grower and juice processor Del Monte Kenya is facing a higher wage bill after signing a pay raise deal with workers of between nine and seven per cent, in addition to improved allowances.

The 1,771 workers of the Thika-based fresh produce company — both temporary and permanent — are set to earn higher allowances for housing, travel and overtime, as well as enjoy paid leave under the new two-year agreement that will be backdated to April.

The collective bargaining agreement was signed on Tuesday between the Kenya Union of Commercial, Food and Allied Workers and Del Monte Kenya Ltd.

“It’s a good deal given the current situation. It was a protracted negotiation. It took us very long because the company is having other challenges,” said union secretary general Boniface Kavuvi.

Implementing the new demands is expected to see Del Monte’s staff costs rise by Sh61.7 million annually, according to the signed pay deal documents seen by the Business Daily.

Del Monte Kenya has 219 permanent employees while the rest are seasonal workers who only get hired at certain times in the year such as during planting and harvesting of pineapples.

The deal on higher pay and allowances comes at a time when Del Monte is embroiled in a legal fight with Murang’a County over the renewal of its land lease set to expire in 2022.

Governor Mwangi wa Iria demanded 6,000 acres of land from Del Monte as a condition to renew its land lease, the juice maker said in court filings.

READ: Mwangi wa Iria accuses Del Monte of killing, dumping trespassers in dam

Miami-based parent company Fresh Del Monte’s net sales grew by nearly a tenth to hit $3.9 billion in the period ended December 2014 in what the company said was buoyed by “expanded production in our new Saudi Arabian juice operation and our Kenya facility.”

Del Monte owns and operates a juice and food cannery as well as a warehouse in Thika where it has a 10,600-acre pineapple plantation under leasehold. It produces and markets pineapple, peaches, fruit cocktail, pears, tomatoes, fruit juices and other fruit and vegetables.

Del Monte competes with Kevian, maker of Pick’N’Peel fresh juice, Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid, Splash by Britania Allied and Kenylon.
The company is a subsidiary of New York Stock Exchange-listed Fresh Del Monte.

The Thika plantation is the company’s sole facility in Africa that supplies pineapple products to its global operations spanning more than 100 countries around the globe.

The lowest grade permanent workers at the plantation will receive a nine per cent pay increase in the first year and eight per cent in the second year, while those in the highest cadre will receive a seven per cent and six per cent raise respectively.

This will see the monthly basic pay for messengers and cleaners rise to Sh28,273 backdated to April this year and Sh30,534 as from April 2016.