Juniors earn more than their bosses

Homa Bay, Kenya: Junior employees in Homa Bay County are taking home better salaries than their bosses, Kenya Union of Civil Servants (KUCS) says.

The union officials expressed concern over the disparity which exists between salaries of civil servants whose services were devolved and that of their colleagues who were employed directly by the county government.

Homa Bay County’s KUCS Executive Secretary Chora Midumbi said the civil servants were earning less than their juniors employed directly by the county government. Those affected most are those devolved from the ministries of Livestock, Agriculture and Water.

Mr Midumbi, who was accompanied by the union’s county Chairman Hezborn Gor, said there is urgent need for harmonisation of the civil servants’ salaries.

HARMINISE SALARIES

He said failure to harmonise the salaries might culminate to demoralisation of the workers and in the long run affect delivery of services.

“It is very unfortunate that junior employees who were employed by the county government like drivers earn better salaries than the professionals they are driving. This difference is usually occasioned by the disparity in house allowances and therefore we want the Government to harmonise these salaries as soon as possible,” Midumbi said.

The civil servants also appealed to the national government to intervene so as to prevent salary delays as the workers’ salaries have been delaying since they were absorbed by the county government.

Homa Bay County Secretary Isaiah Ogwe said most of the employees were absorbed from the defunct local authorities with the salaries they used to earn previously.

“You know the workers of the local authorities used to decide the rate at which they could be paid and this led to a situation where they used to earn huge salaries which we maintained when we absorbed them,” Ogwe said.

He said they were waiting for the Principal Secretary for Devolution to give directions regarding harmonising the salaries.

Ogwe however said civil servants who had not got their salaries were those who had not presented their details his office.