Win as dock workers allowed to fix fees

Dock Workers Union members fight in Mombasa in 2017 after their annual general meeting aborted. [Maarufu Mohamed, Standard]

Things are looking up for dock workers at the port of Mombasa after the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) exempted them from an anti-competitive clause.

The workers, who have complained about dismal working conditions at Kenya’s main port, now expect their pay to increase after CAK allowed their association to fix their fees, ending what to many has been a labour eyesore at the region’s largest port.

The fees will be set by the Kenya Maritime Authority and Kenya Ports Authority (KPA).

In a Kenya Gazette notice last Friday, CAK Director-General Wang’ombe Kariuki said that in capping the fees, they would be guided by the KPA Tariff Book.

“It is notified for general information that the authority has granted an exemption to the setting of Ship Support Services Tariffs based on the KPA Tariff Book by the Kenya Ships Contractors Association (KSCA),” said CAK boss.

The authority cited Section 26 of the Competition Act, 2010, which allows it to grant certain parties to set a minimum price to improve their livelihoods.

It is a landmark decision by an agency that has turned down requests by public secretaries, accountants, surveyors, and valuers to fix professional fees.

While the competition law frowns on practices that distort or lessen competition, it, however, says that public good such as port services can override the need for competition.

In December last year, KSCA was bullish that CAK had heard their grievances, with its chairman, Richard Jefwa, eyeing a minimum pay of $100 (Sh10,000) per hour per gang of eight people. This would be a 300 per cent increase from the current pay of around 2,500 as a group on an eight-hour shift.

Jefwa said the current pay is way below what other dockers earn in other ports in the world. Dockworkers at Mombasa port work in groups, offering tallying services, lashing and unleashing, garbage collection, sludge (oil) removals and trimming of bulk cargo.

However, with the dockworkers getting their wish after years of pain in which some of them have had to spend nights at the port to avoid extra charges for entering and leaving, shipping agents will have to pass the additional labour costs to consumers.

Last year, reports by a popular Danish online post accused Maersk Shipping Line of presiding over abysmal subcontractor working conditions.