Trade Unions want SRC disbanded citing frustrations on CBAs negotiations

COTU Deputy Secretary General Benson Okwaro{Middle} address the press in Kisumu today where they want the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to be disbanded claiming that it antagonizing unions on issues of Collective Bargaining Agreement-Photo By Dickson Odhiambo.

By Dickson Odhiambo

  

December 11, 2019

Trade Unions want SRC disbanded citing frustrations on CBAs negotiations

A Number of trade unions affiliated to COTU now wants the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to be disbanded with immediate effect claiming that it is frustrating the issue of Collective Bargaining Agreement to public Servants across the country.

The Trade Unions claims that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission has overstepped its mandate hence should be done away with forthwith.

The about 20 General Secretaries of the various trade unions say they want to put a stop to a menace the SRC has created where it has allegedly gone to the extend on wanting to know when the Unions will come to agreement with the employers through Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Addressing the press in Kisumu today after meeting the Representative of Trade Unions which represents the workers in the public sector, the Unionists led by Cotu Deputy General Secretary Benson Okwaro said the proposed guideline by the SRC that the unions to give a proposal in one year before a collective bargaining agreement expires is not a good one at all.

Okwaro says the Trade Unions have vowed to even move to court to challenge such a proposed guideline from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, adding that the trade unions will also go to court and seek interpretations on the roles of the Commission.

“We are assembling our legal team and soon before the year ends, we will move to court to challenge such a decision by the Salaries and remuneration commission because we strongly believe this is not part of their mandate,” Okwaro says.

They say the SRC should leave the Unions to freely negotiate and register the Collective Bargaining Agreements.

“We have instances where some parastatals have negotiated with the unions and CBAs signed and registered then you find that the SRC is going to court to block a CBA that has been negotiated and signed. This is very wrong,” he adds.

They say the Commission’s major role is to give advice to the government on salary issues.

Eanest Nadome, the General Secretary of the Kenya Electricals and Allied Workers Union said since the enactment of the new constitution of Kenya in the year 2010 SRC has not played a major role in ensuring that there is smoothen the issue of Collective Bargaining Agreement.

He says the major role of the Commission is to determine terms and conditions of service for the state officers.

“We are fed up with SRC and we are ready to face them in a court of law so that interpretations can be made about their roles,” Nadome says.

“We are against the proposal by the SRC saying that for one to negotiate the new CBA, you must submit such a proposal one year before. This is unacceptable and we must challenge it in a court of law,” Nadome adds.

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