Money and power: Inside the big battle for workers billions

Kenya’s labour market is expected to undergo major changes as the government tries to work with different workers’ representative groups arising from the recent break-up of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions.

Two major centres of power have emerged in the labour movement following last week’s high-profile launch of the Public Service Trade Unions (Pusetu) as the umbrella body for civil servants.

Three Cabinet Secretaries attended the launch.

The government’s tacit support for Pusetu is seen as calculated to weaken Cotu’s control of billions of shillings in workers’ contributions and kill its monopoly of trade union power in Kenya.

Pusetu also affords the government the chance to remove its workers from the steely grip of seasoned activists such as Cotu secretary-general Francis Atwoli, seen as a stumbling block to President Kenyatta’s economic agenda.

The agenda includes a possible freeze in salaries of civil servants and retrenchment of thousands of government workers to reduce the country’s wage bill.

A strong union means the government can only move slowly in executing these plans and pay retrenched workers much higher redundancy packages.

The heavy government presence at the Pusetu launch and the ensuing power wars between the two umbrella unions is seen as a well-crafted scheme by the Kenyatta government to manage the clamour for higher pay in the civil service.

Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi set the stage with the announcement that May Day celebrations will now be co-hosted by Cotu and Pusetu, handing the unionists a date with destiny on May 1 when Pusetu chairman Tom Odege and Cotu’s Atwoli jostle for power on the podium.

For Cotu, the desertion by trade unions representing public servants comes at a painful and personal price of losing well-paying seats in the boardrooms of parastatals such as the National Hospital Insurance Fund, National Social Security Fund, Retirement Benefits Authority and Salaries and Remuneration Commission.

The institutions manage billions of workers’ funds.

The union chiefs are also looking at losing billions collected from members as fees.

Cotu says it has 1.2 million members and deducts Sh100 from each member while Pusetu claims 700,000 members who contribute between Sh200 and Sh500 monthly.

“We are in the serious business of representing workers and that is why we are demanding our seats back in SRC, NHIF, NSSF and the National Labour Board,” Mr Odege said yesterday, adding that he wanted to take charge of organising Labour Day celebrations.

The Tuesday launch of Pusetu was attended by Cabinet secretaries Ann Waiguru (Devolution), Jacob Kaimenyi (Education) and Kambi, reinforcing assertions by critics that Pusetu was a government project to weaken Cotu in the way the Moi government registered Kuppet to weaken Knut in the 1990s.

The battle has also taken a generational angle with Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion, the brains behind Pusetu, vowing to kick out the old guard union leadership.

At the launch, Mr Kambi also weighed in, urging Mr Atwoli to pave way for younger leaders. “He has served us for many years and it is time for him to go,” he said.

Pusetu applied for registration in October 2010 but only became official in November 2012 after a protracted court case.

Members include the Union of Kenya Civil Servants, Kenya National Union of Teachers, Universities Academic Staff Union and Kenya Universities Staff Union.

Mr Atwoli dismissed Pusetu as a government project that does not represent workers. “Pusetu is a sectoral trade union that cannot claim to be a federation as it represents workers in the public sector only and this is evident in its name and those of its affiliates,” he said.

Mr Kambi has denied claims the government planned to divide workers, saying: “Cotu should not be afraid of competition. We, as a government, encourage competition among unions that represent the interests of workers.”

FOPCUSED AND CIVILISED

But he quickly added that the government would work with Pusetu as it is “more focused and civilised in dealing with the government”.

Meanwhile, Dr Samuel Oresi, a labour relations expert, said the proliferation of unions will weaken the labour movement in the country.

“We only need one huge umbrella body and bringing in another will create rivalry, which has not been working for unions in the past,” he said.

Dr Oresi said never before has a government shown such a keen interest in the affairs of a trade union.

“It is obviously suspect, coming at a time President Kenyatta is leading a clamour to rein in the runaway wage bill,” he said.