Atwoli and Sossion vow to fight changes to Labour laws

The annual fete comes as Labour Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani maintains the push to change the Labour Relations Act to tighten industrial action rules, will go on despite opposition.

Ironically, the theme of this year’s celebration is “Let us reason together for sustainable economic growth and job security”.

Strike notice

If the National Assembly passes the proposals, workers intending to go on strike will have to give a 21-day notice, up from the current seven.

The changes also seeks to entrench the Alternatives Disputes Resolutions practice in labour relations, which Yattani says is meant to contain disagreements before they reach the courts and lead to paralysis.

Also raising opposition is the proposal to raise the Labour ministry representation at the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). This would give the government more say in the workers’ fund.

“When anyone looks at NSSF and their investment plans, it speaks of institutional and systematic poor management and runaway corruption. The perception that stakeholders are better managers is wrong, otherwise this would not be the case at NSSF where the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) and Federation of Kenyan Employers (FKE) form majority in the board,” said Yattani.

He said the proposed amendments through an omnibus Statute Laws Miscellaneous Amendment Bill are meant to insulate the critical and essential services from disruptions through industrial actions.

The amendments seek to stop workers in critical services such as health, fire-fighting and air control from downing their tools as a form of industrial action, and instead opt for other means to agitate for their welfare.

The Cabinet Secretary lobbied unionists to support the move, saying it would only stop workers whose downing of tools could have “major catastrophic impacts” from going on strike.

He said this was to ensure that the rights of Kenyans to life, which overrides all other rights, is protected.

But Cotu Secretary General Francis Atwoli and nominated MP Wilson Sossion, who is the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary General, dismissed the porposals as punitive and unconstitutional.

“There is nothing like essential services. The Constitution is clear that all services are equal. They are planning to introduce archaic laws which are going against the constitution. Article 41 of the Constitution does not discriminate against any worker even if he is working at State House,” said Atwoli.

He warned those pushing the new labour laws that he will go to court and have the legislation annulled.

Sossion said almost all the proposed amendments were in bad faith and meant to curtail rights of workers.

“We are ready to fight these proposed amendments, as all of them appear to be targeting the constitutional rights of workers. Some elements want to use some statutes to deny workers that which is expressly guaranteed in the Constitution,” complained Sossion.

He said it was suspect that the Government was introducing the changes through miscellaneous amendments, a move he termed as meant to cheat the process of public participation.

NSSF board

He said the ministry knows Kenyans will oppose the proposals and had opted to channel the amendments through the omnibus Bill without having it scrutinized by the public.

“We will fight them in the court even if they are sneaked through Parliament,” he said.

FKE Chief Executive Officer Jacqueline Mugo said the changes are meant to give Labour CS powers to appoint five people outside government to the NSSF board.

“We have fought hard to protect money from both workers and employers. Employers and workers are the sole contributors and we are aware of plans to kick their representatives out of the board of trustees,” she said. But FKE supports the proposals on disputes resolution.