Report questions farms’ labour practices

By Felix Olick

Sackings, low salaries, and unfair disciplinary processes are the biggest human rights challenges facing employees in the flower sector.

This is according to a labour rights report released yesterday, coinciding with Valentine’s Day.

The draft report, Wilting in Bloom: The Irony of Women Labour Rights in the Cutflower Sector in Kenya, by the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) indicates that 82 per cent of employees reported high rates of unfair dismissal.

It also pointed out that access to childcare facilities was not a legal requirement under the law despite Kenya ratifying provisions on childcare as provided for in the UN Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

"Day care facilities in Naivasha were found to have the worst conditions, with reports of children dying from ricket," the report reads in part.

About 89 per cent of the respondents were unanimous there are no fair disciplinary hearing processes in the flower farms.

The study, commissioned by KHRC in October, last year, looked at 15 flower farms in Thika, Athi River, and Naivasha.

KHRC Executive Director Atsango Chesoni said the study considered employment policies and their implementation in relation to compliance with the Employment Act. The survey also considered rights enshrined in the new Constitution.

The report shows that workers still earn wages that are below levels that can provide decent living.

They also do not have effective representation from workers union despite paying two per cent of their gross wages to the Kenya Plantations and Agricultural Workers Union and an additional Sh100 directly to the Central Organisation of Trade Unions.

Under funding of the Ministry of Labour is singled out as one of the factors contributing to the violation of women’s labour rights.

According to the report, inadequate staff, insufficient budgetary provisions for certain programmes, dilapidated and obsolete equipment are some of the things preventing the ministry from undertaking their mandate of protecting vulnerable employees.

However, the survey indicates that cases of sexual harassment had declined slightly as compared to previous studies conducted by KHRC.

"There is marked improvement on prevention of sexual harassment in workplaces with 46 percent of the respondents reporting policies in place to be adequate to protect workers. Workplace have adopted sexual harassment to answer to the Employment Act," said Joyce Gema, the project consultant.

Assistant Labour Commissioner Joseph Nyagah said the Ministry of Labour is planning to introduce a living wage instead of minimum wage because of the hard economic times.