Cotu: Govt must honour wage demand

The umbrella workers' body has maintained it will not backtrack on its demands for a 60 percent minimum wage increase.

The Central Organisation of Trade Union (Cotu) deputy secretary general George Muchai warned that if the government fails to honour the wage increase on Labour Day, they would have no option but call for a major industrial strike.

“We are saying that the least paid worker should now earn Sh11,000 up from the Sh7,374 they are currently earning…this is not asking for too much,” Mr Muchai told journalists in Nairobi Tuesday.

“The amount we are asking for is equivalent to what these employers use to purchase fuel to run errands for their private cars yet they don’t want to spend the money on their workers whom they expect to budget on their meagre pay for a month."

Employers have already indicated that they are not prepared to give into the demands saying it is simply impossible under the current economic conditions.

Mr Muchai revealed that talks were still going on to ensure that their demands were fully met and remained optimistic that they will prevail.

He spoke on the sidelines of a workshop of the technical committee whose mandate is to align the county’s labour laws to the new constitution.   

The committee members include representatives from the Industrial Court, Ministry of Labour, Attorney General’s office, Cotu, Law Society of Kenya, Federation of Kenya Employers, Kenya Law Reform Commission and the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.