Changing the Labour Relations Act to restrict how a worker, providing essential services would participate, is unconstitutional.
Article 41 of the Constitution grants “every” worker the right to participate in trade union activities, including going on strike.
This part of the law means that changing the Act to restrict how a worker, providing essential services would participate, is unconstitutional.
But that is what is intended by the planned changes to the Labour Relations Act that lists a number of activities as “essential” and whose providers would partly participate in an industrial action by discussing with the board a limited service schedule.
The employer should never plan how a strike runs.
Union officials face, among other things, a Sh500,000 fine or a three-month jail term should a strike disrupt the provision of water, sanitation, telecoms, healthcare, and electricity.
We may understand where the drafters of the amendment are coming from, what with the recent strikes that disrupted medical services for close to a year.
However, dealing with such challenges should not include breaking the supreme law. We ask the drafters of the bill to review it more keenly.
Indeed, the government would be right to categorise services as essential, but it has to treat people offering such services well instead of gagging them by shredding and disregarding the Constitution.
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