FKE supports 12pc minimum wage increase

Employers have supported President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Labour Day announcement of a 12 per cent minimum wage increase but warned employees outside that bracket from taking advantage of it to agitate for a pay rise.

The Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) said that though the increase was only meant for the lowest paid workers, a section of employees had already started calling for a similar 12 per cent increase in their pay.

The employers, however, asked for a different approach to pay increases “outside the pressures of Labour Day”.

Executive director Jacqueline Mugo said that the employees in the other brackets whose wages were not increased should explore other avenues to get a pay rise.

“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 on Tuesday.

She was addressing the media after an annual general meeting of the federation’s western Kenya branch.

NO PRESSURE

Ms Mugo, who said that President Kenyatta had consulted them widely on the minimum wage increase, on Tuesday suggested Kenyans stop asking for pay increases 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 talk about 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 Labour Day celebrations to demand pay increases.

This year, the unions wanted a 20 per cent minimum wage increase as a result of 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.

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

The executive director insisted that following the President’s comments that a wage increase must be followed by an increase in productivity, workers must up their game.

She said that calls for a wage increase when 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.

During the western Kenya AGM, Mr Vinod Patel of Skylark Company was re-elected chairman and Mr Charles Owele of Chemelil Sugar his deputy.