Posta yet to pay salaries for the last five months

The State-owned Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) has not paid salaries for its employees since March, highlighting the firm’s cash flow challenges.

The Employees have now petitioned the National Assembly through the departmental committee on Information, Communication and Technology to probe the corporations’ failure to pay salaries.

In the last 10 years, Internet service providers and the entry of giant telco Safaricom, have drastically cut reliance on Posta for the physical delivery of letters.

Through Wajir East MP Rashid Amin, Posta employees want Parliament to recommend that the Cabinet Secretary responsible for Information, Communications and Telecommunication initiates a process of rescuing the PCK from its current financial crisis.

“I, the undersigned, on behalf of the employees of the Postal Corporation of Kenya draw the attention of the House that over the past five years, the corporation has consistently posted a deficit in an increasing trend which led to financial challenges making it difficult to settle staff salary arrears,” Mr Amin said.

The MP said efforts made by the employees to have the corporation address their plight have been unsuccessful.

Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) also took over Posta pension scheme after the State firm failed to remit more than Sh1 billion that had been deducted from staff for the retirement fund.

The employees asked lawmakers to investigate the matter with a view to resolving the issues relating to delays in the payment of salaries.

The employees said pandemic has aggravated the situation with minimal postal activities.

The parastatal’s fortunes have dwindled following an uptake of email, calls, SMS and social media which has resulted in a major decline in mail correspondence, especially among individuals.

The number of letters posted locally in the three months to March declined by 19.3 per cent to 8.5 million from 10.5 million letters the quarter ended December.