Nairobi, Kenya: A nasty traffic snarl up was experienced Monday morning along Lang'ata Road after some construction workers blocked the road, demonstrating against what they termed as punitive taxes.
The employees of China Road and Bridge Corporation workers constructing the Southern by-pass on Monday morning blocked Lang'ata road over unpaid dues and poor working conditions.
The workers claimed they are forced to pay taxes on their overtime and allowances.
They also complained that they have been paying Sh1080 for National Social Security Fund (NSSF) for the last six months.
"We like the projects between our government and China but that does not give employer the right to harass us . We should work freely," said one of the workers.
He added that their pay is deducted if the work is interrupted by rain or when you one falls sick.
"We have labour laws in Kenya that say we need to be paid for the eight hours, but this law seems not to apply to the Chinese company," he said.
The chaos disrupted activities along the road for the best part of the morning causing a huge traffic snarl up as the workers engaged General Service Unit officers in running battles.
It took the police several hours to disperse the large crowd. The police had to throw tear gas canisters at them to restore normalcy to the busy road.
The disgruntled employees called on the government to intervene calling it a matter of urgency.
The workers called for quick resolutions to their problems adding that they were ready to get back to work once all the issues are dealt with.
They also called on the police to keep off their affairs since they were holding peaceful demonstrations and had not harmed anybody.
Another worker also pointed out that their union had bargained an 11.5 per cent yearly salary increment but had only received pay rise last year.
"We were to get paid another 11.5 per cent this year in September but we have not received any communication concerning the pay," said the worker.
Another issue on the poor working conditions was that they are ferried in open trucks even when it is raining causing most workers to fall sick.
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Efforts to contact the management of the company bore no fruits as they declined to talk to the press.
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