Civil servants threaten to hold weekly protests

Civil servants have warned that they will start holding demonstrations every Tuesday should the government make good its threat to put all its permanent and pensionable employees under contract.

They demanded that the government must respect all permanent and pensionable contractors that it entered with them.

They also urged the government to stop issuing unilateral threats to them and engage their union leaders in constructive social dialogue based on the tripartite framework.

The escalating fury among the public servants comes almost a week after Public Service, Performance and Delivery Management Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria hinted that he would present a proposal to the cabinet to convert all public servants from permanent to contractual terms.

Noting that a review of the country’s wage bill found that sustaining employees permanently was unpalatable, Kuria claimed that about half of Kenya’s tax collected annually is consumed by merely one million public servants. In contrast, the other half is directed at rendering services to the rest of the Kenyans who are the majority.

Union leaders

Doctors who are a constituent of Kenya’s public service workforce have been on strike for 45 days after several dialogues between them and the Ministry of Health yielded stalemates.

Kuria said that though the government is not against the actualising of their demands, they are unattainable.

Yesterday, through their respective union leaders, public servants said that public servants deserve better treatment by the government.

“Workers are not ready to pander to the whims of an insensitive government that has a cavalier attitude towards its own employees, whose statements do not inspire hope among workers, respects no law nor structures and instead incite workers to down their tools,” eight union leaders said in a joint statement.

They termed the government pronouncement as an affront and a direct attack on labour adding that it is not only a blatant violation of the constitution but it is a disregard to tenets of tripartism and social dialogue which violates the rights of workers.

“These reckless utterances are likely to cause unnecessary panic, anxiety, low morale and reduced productivity in the public sector. It is the public servants that are charged with the responsibility of implementing the government’s programmes and policies,” they explained.

High taxation

The unions include the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), Union of Kenya Civil Servants (UKCS), Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU), Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU), Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers Union (KUPPET).

Others were the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO), Dock Workers Union (DWU) and Kenya National Union of Nurses.

The unions also criticised the government over the violation of signed collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), the introduction of high taxations, and the emasculation of trade unions saying the move threatened to decimate the entire public service.

“The government has introduced the housing levy at 1.5 per cent, and increased NHIF from a maximum of Sh1700 to 2.75 per cent of gross pay. The result of the action is that workers have been rendered destitute. The government has also increased taxation on Pay As You Earn from 30 to 35 per cent on gross pay. It is unfair to base taxation on gross pay part of which is a reimbursement for costs incurred by workers,” the statement reads.

It adds: “Trade unions are formed by workers to protect their rights and interests in the workplace. They are recognised and protected in our supreme law of the land. The government must stop threatening union leaders, threatening to withdraw Union dues and generally making the work environment toxic.”

The officials maintained that the doctors’ 2017-2021 CBA which is the root cause of the ongoing strike must be respected first to allow parties to engage in any further negotiations.

They emphasized that CBAs are constitutional rights to workers adding that they are regulated by law and guided by International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions which Kenya has ratified.

“Parties to such an agreement must respect it in total lest it leads to industrial anarchy,” the union leaders added.