Battle lines drawn as rival trade unions tussle for the numbers

Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi (second left) graces last week’s launch of Pusetu. The new union’s demand to host Labour Day has rattled Cotu. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

By Stephen Makabila and Jacob Ngetich

Nairobi, Kenya: The Public Service Trade Unions of Kenya (Pusetu) and the Central Organisation of Trade Union (Cotu) are now fighting over representation on key statutory boards.

They are battling to take slots on the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), the National Labour Board (NLB), Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) and the National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) boards.

Workers have two representatives on the NSSF board, three representatives in the National Labour Board and two representatives in the NHIF board.

They also have one representative on the SRC and another representative on NITA, bringing the total to 13 board members.

Cotu currently occupies all those positions but Pusetu has demanded to take the lion’s share because its membership, officials claim, stands at 700,000 while that of Cotu is 160,000 members.

Cotu Secretary General Francis Atwoli has dismissed those fugures, saying details at the Registrar of Trade Unions show they have 1.29 million members compared to Pusetu’s 259,000.

“In NHIF, for example, our affiliate Knut alone contributes 60 per cent of funds received, the other 20 per cent being from the Union of Kenya Civil Servant (UKCS). Pusetu should therefore be the one donating whoever sits on this board,” Pusetu Secretary General Charles Mukhwaya told The Standard on Sunday.

Dr Mukhwaya, who is also the Secretary General of Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU), says Pusetu also wants two slots on the NSSF board, two slots on the NLB and all the remaining slots on NITA and the SRC.

“The Salaries and Remunerations Commission deals with salaries for public servants, how does Cotu sit on such a board when it represents workers in the private sector,” asks Mukwaya.

Membership figures

According to him, Pusetu affiliates, which include the giant Knut, UKCS, KUSU, Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) and the Dock Workers Union (DWU) stand as the most vibrant unions in the country, with more than four times what Cotu has in numbers.

“Cotu can claim to have 41 unions, but some are shells. What matters is not the number of unions you have as affiliates, but the strong membership of your affiliate unions,” says Mukhwaya.

Also on Pusetu’s cards is to push Parliament to ratify Convention 87 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which allows multiple labour centres and employer federations in ILO member countries. Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion, who is a Pusetu board member, told The Standard on Sunday that though Pusetu is already protected by the Constitution, they want to save the country the embarrassment of being viewed as a ‘pariah state’ by ratifying the ILO Convention the way other countries, including neighbouring Uganda and Tanzania, have done.

Labour laws

Lawyer Gertrude Angote, the Executive Director of Kituo Cha Sheria, an LSK Council member and an authority in labour laws, says the Constitution allows formation of another labour centre.

“Pusetu was within its right to register as a second labour centre, as it complied with all the requirements,” said Angote.

But even as Pusetu pushes for the slots in statutory bodies, the High Court on Wednesday directed the Labour ministry to gazette a Cotu representative to the NSSF board.

The union had moved to Court, arguing that the ministry had not appointed its second representative to the NSSF board despite several appeals. Cotu had appointed Damaris Muhika to sit as its representative to the board.

Analysts say it may easy for Pusetu to secure the slots on the boards, given the Government seems to be warming up to the new Labour centre.

They point out the presence of three Cabinet Secretaries at the Pusetu launch on Tuesday, namely Kazungu Kambi (Labour), Jacob Kaimenyi (Education) and Anne Waiguru (Devolution), as a sign of warm relations between the Government and Pusetu.

And while Pusetu pushes for slots on the five statutory bodies, Cotu has moved ahead, making Kenya to become the first country in the world to launch the online Minimum Wage Compliance platform that will provide an avenue for workers to report employers who are not paying them as stipulated in the law.

The initiative was spearheaded by the Wage Indicator Foundation in partnership with Cotu and the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) and was launched on Wednesday in Nairobi.

Atwoli, FKE Executive Director Jacqueline Mugo, and Paulien Osse, the Director, Wage Indicator Foundation, graced the occasion. Atwoli has since dismissed Pusetu as a project being used by Kambi to fight him over his opposition to the NSSF’s Tassia Housing project.

Mukhwaya, however, says if Pusetu were a project, it would not have taken it prolonged court battles to secure registration.

None affiliates

Mukhwaya said the idea to form a new labour centre was mooted on realisation that majority of trade unions within the Public Service sector were either by design or default not Cotu affiliates and yet there was no other umbrella body for them.

“As a result of such a lacuna, a formal application for registration of a new labour centre was made and submitted to the Government. Naturally, and as expected, Cotu objected to the registration. The matter moved to the High Court as judicial review with the Registrar of Trade Unions as the respondent while Cotu was enjoined as an interested party. The court on July 17th, 2012 ordered the Registrar to register Pusetu as a new Labour Centre, effectively locking out Cotu from laying claim on Public Service trade unions,” said Mukhwaya.

Sossion and Mukhwaya say with the launch behind them, securing of slots and on statutory boards and ratification of the ILO Convention 87 is their next focus.