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Kenya Meat Commission moves to contain workers' 'rebellion' over pay

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A Kenya Meat Commission outlet in Kasarani, Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) has moved to contain a row pitting the management and workers, who claim they are being intimidated after agitating for better pay.

Last week, seven employees were questioned at the Athi River Police Station after engaging in a WhatsApp group chat through which they allegedly “championed rebellion.”

One of the employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being victimised, said they were summoned to the police station and grilled after they questioned why there was discrimination in promoting workers.

“The truth of the matter is that there are issues since some are being promoted while others languish in the same positions. You may find that a new employee is earning double the salary of old ones.

"Whatever the management is doing is intimidation but we will not be cowed in the fight for our right,” said the worker.

READ: Livestock sector professionals want KMC board sacked

Contain situation

However, Joseph Learamo, the KMC's managing commissioner, claimed the employees had planned to sabotage the management, after which he moved swiftly to contain the situation.

“We cannot allow workers who have formed a chat group calling itself "comrades for power" to go on. We got the information and called in investigators because we did not want it to go out of hand with employees going to the extent of destroying company property,” he said in a telephone interview.

The KMC has been in the news lately after an employee went to court to challenge his dismissal after he allegedly delayed a presidential function.

READ: KMC manager sacked for ‘delaying president’

At the centre of the current row is a recommendation by the Salaries Remuneration Commission (SRC) last year on a scale for workers’ pay.

SRC, on receiving a pay structure from KMC's management, observed in a July 7, 2017 letter that the structure as submitted was “above the recommended salary structure for the job evaluation within the framework of affordability and fiscal sustainability.”

'Fake' structure

But the workers suspect that the structure that was submitted to SRC was fake, and was sent in bad faith with the intention to deny them the right of a pay increase.

On January 4, 2018, the workers in job group seven to 10 wrote to the SRC requesting information over the submitted structure.

In the letter, they also claim that their representatives at the Kenya Union of Commercial and Allied Workers Union were arbitrarily sacked, leaving them without a representative.

The union’s Athi River branch has also written to the SRC seeking to establish why a salary structure recommended by the commission after a job evaluation was being implemented selectively.

“We hereby inform you that only a few employees have been awarded leaving out the rest and we want to understand the criteria used which is not within your recommendations,” said Rebecca Muthoki, the branch secretary.

Claims denied

But Mr Learamo denied claims that the structure was being implemented selectively, saying it was a model.

“We have no money to implement it we have no money. We have not received cash over the past two years and have written to SRC indicating that once the money is available we will implement it according to the commission’s guidelines,” he said on Sunday.

READ: Treasury accused of blocking KMC funds

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