Pay rise standoff threatens to sink tea production

A rift between multinational tea companies and pickers over a pay package is threatening to bring Kenya’s largest foreign exchange earner to its knees.

The boycott by more than 60,000 workers affiliated to the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union has alleged turned to criminal activities with some property being burnt while some employees were reportedly harassed by police.

The workers in Kericho, Sotik and Nandi counties boycotted work, protesting failure by tea plantation owners to honour two collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) signed in 2014/2015 and 2016/2017.

INCREMENT

Now the workers are seeking to force implementation of a 30 per cent salary increment awarded by court in 2014.

The workers through the union secretary-general Francis Atwoli have stated that they will not go back to work until their pay is increased as per a court order, while the multinationals, through the Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA) are unyielding in their stance that any increased costs will be too much to bear.

As the standoff persists, vast volumes of mature tea leaves remain unpicked for two weeks now, threatening to plunge the industry into massive losses.

According to KTGA, multinationals have incurred close to Sh400 million in losses since the strike started.

The companies include Unilever Tea Kenya Ltd, James Finlay Kenya Ltd, KTGA and Eastern Produce Kenya Ltd with farms in Sotik, Nandi Hills, Kericho and Limuru.

The firms argue that tea farming is already weighed down by rising labour costs that could discourage investments and further hurt the economy.

LABOUR COSTS

The association also warned that Kenya is staring at the same fate that befell the tea sector in South Africa when companies closed shop because of high labour costs.

Also to be affected by the ongoing strike, KTGA warned, are the workers themselves as operations in their tea factories are likely to be grounded. The association estimates that close to one million Kenyans are employed directly or indirectly in the tea industry.

But Mr Atwoli is adamant that it is either full implementation of the pay rise or nothing and further accused the multinationals of influencing the police to crack down on the workers.

“KTGA should stop its exploitative tendencies within the tea sector and imagine that through the courts it can intimidate employees,” he said in a statement yesterday, adding that the union was ready to enter into a return-to-work formula with the employers.

The government has urged the conflicting parties to hold talks and end the stalemate, but two meetings with a Ministry of Labour commissioner have been unsuccessful.

The strike has also taken a new twist after the union petitioned international labour organisations to end the boycott.

FEEDBACK

The union is now awaiting feedback from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and other UN agencies before announcing its next move.

Mr Atwoli said they might be forced to call for an international boycott on all products of the multinational tea firms until the pay dispute is resolved.

However, tea farmers affiliated to the Kenya Tea Development Agency are not affected by the strike.

Meanwhile, a human rights lobby has condemned what they termed as use of police to harass and evict employees from their work residences for taking part in the strike.

The executive director of Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Mr Ken Wafula, called on Inspector-General of police Joseph Boinnet to ensure that his officers are not involved in the labour dispute.

Over 40,000 tea workers at Unilever, James Finlay, Tea Research Institute–Kaisugu and other companies under KTGA in Kericho, Bomet and Nandi began their strike on October 17.

Mr Wafula also accused the KTGA firms of frustrating a 2014 case in which the workers demand 30 per cent salary increment.