The workers want the GDC to implement the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for the period January 2017 to December 2020, among a raft of other demands.
Failure to do so will lead to a strike beginning July 24, when the notice period expires, the employees said.
The workers say that they have been subjected to poor working conditions, including working without personal protective equipment (PPEs) and safety committees, exposing them to preventable accidents.
More than 700 employees of state-owned Geothermal Development Company (GDC) have issued a strike notice citing poor working conditions and low pay.
The employees, through the Kenya Electrical Trades and Allied Workers Union (Ketawu), want the GDC to implement the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for the period January 2017 to December 2020, among a raft of other demands.
Failure to do so will lead to a strike beginning July 24, when the notice period expires, the employees said.
“In compliance with the constitution and Labour Relations Act and other laws, we hereby issue notice to the management of GDC to address the issues, failure to which we shall have no option but to mobilise our members to participate in a nationwide strike upon expiry of 21 days on July 24, 2018,” Ketawu says in the notice signed by its secretary- general Ernest Nakenya.
The GDC workers say that they have been subjected to poor working conditions, including working without personal protective equipment (PPEs) and safety committees, exposing them to preventable accidents.
GDC is also accused of lacking commitment to harmonisation of salaries, proper job grading and promotions. Further, the union says, the state firm has continued to run on skewed and secluded employment policies, and subjected its workers to poor social amenities at its Menengai, Nakuru site and drilling sections.
GDC communications manager Wanjiru Kang'ara said the firm was in talks with the union, and would make public details of the agreement later.
"We are in discussions with the union on the issue, and have always been in talks with them," said Ms Kang'ara without giving further details.
The two parties signed the CBA in September last year, setting out new terms for GDC employees, who had worked for nearly a decade without clear terms of service.
The CBA contains the pay structure, allowances, medical scheme as well as the procedure of settling labour disputes.
It has now emerged that the parties did not file the agreement at the Employment and Labour Relations Court as required after it was signed, although the union said it was satisfied with the terms agreed.
Besides, terms of the agreement were not disclosed to the workers on grounds that it was yet to be deposited in court.
The GDC was formed in 2008 to drill Kenya’s geothermal fields and sell steam heads to state owned power producer KenGen and other private power producers for development.
The company has been active in Olkaria in Naivasha, Suswa, Menengai in Nakuru and in Baringo. Treasury CS Henry Rotich said in the budget statement last month that the government expects three private public partnership (PPP) power generation projects to be rolled out at the Menengai site in the current fiscal year, each producing 35 megawatts.
The Menengai site, where GDC has been drilling wells since 2011, has an estimated potential to produce 1,600 megawatts, Baringo’s potential is estimated at 3000 megawatts and Suswa at 750 megawatts.
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