Corporate News
Tuskys workers protest over pay in 2013. PHOTO | FILE
By DAVID HERBLING, hdavid@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
Tuskys Supermarkets is facing higher staff costs
after the retailer signed a fresh pay deal with workers who will now
receive an eight per cent wage rise in the first year and a similar
increment in the second year.
The family-owned retail chain’s 4,200 unionisable employees
also secured higher housing, transport allowances, and overtime pay,
according to the fresh two-year collective bargaining agreement
backdated to March 2015.
Other benefits are maternity, paternity, sick and
annual leave days. The new pay deal succeeds the maiden salary agreement
signed in December 2013 after Tuskys workers went on strike demanding
their right to join a trade union and harmonise their pay with basic
minimum wages.
The pay deal was signed on Friday last week between
the Kenya Union of Commercial, Food and Allied Workers (Kucfaw) and
Tusker Mattresses Ltd, Tuskys’ holding company.
“The company (Tusker Mattresses Ltd) and the union
(Kucfaw) meeting in a free heart and voluntary association agree and
enter into the foregoing,” reads the labour contract seen by the Business Daily.
The pay increase in the new deal is, however, lower
to the March 2013-2015 agreement which gave workers a 10 per cent rise
in the first year followed by 11 per cent in the second year.
“This is the best we could squeeze given the
current situation. We negotiated this deal for more than nine months and
there have also been leadership issues in the company,” said Kucfaw
secretary-general Boniface Kavuvi.
The pay pact comes at a time when Tuskys is
embroiled in a family feud over the ownership and running of the
top-tier retailer ranked second in terms of revenue behind Nakumatt.
The business is run by seven siblings including
George Gachwe (managing director), Stephen Mukuha, Yusuf Mugweru, John
Kago, Sam Gatei, Mary Njoki and Kenneth Mwangi Njeri.
The grandchildren of the late Tuskys family
patriarch Joram Kama — the retailer’s founder — last month dramatically
sacked and evicted the then CEO Dan Githua out of office.
Newly-employed cashiers at Tuskys currently earn a
basic monthly pay of Sh24,898 and an eight per cent pay rise will see
them get Sh26,889 in the first year and Sh29,041 in the second year.
Tuskys workers are now entitled to free
accommodation from the retailer or a house allowance equivalent to 15
per cent of basic wage plus Sh1,500, together with commuter allowance of
Sh2,850 per month.
The workers also secured 23 leave days every year,
paid sick leave of up to 40 days annually, three-month maternity leave
and 14-day paternity leave.
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