Retrenchment by Government of Kenya ‘targets lowly paid workers’

By LONAH KIBET

NAIROBI, KENYA: A civil servants’ union has accused the Government of targeting employees in the lower cadre during the planned retrenchment next year.

Union of Kenya Civil Servants Secretary General Tom Odege said the employees who earn below Sh20,000 monthly were an easy target for the Government compared to highly paid State officers.

“We have State officers earning up to Sh1 million in a month yet subordinate staff earn between Sh20,000 and Sh10,000. If a difference really needs to be made why sacrifice 100,000 small fish yet you can let one large fish go?” posed Odege.

He said they would fight for the rights of their members and have given the Government until March next year to engage them in dialogue.

“We are open to dialogue with the concerned ministry. If no common ground is reached by then, we will have no choice but to take a drastic step,” he said.

He instead suggested that the Government offers attractive retirement packages and those interested in retiring would apply but not be forcefully removed from office.

Doubting the impact of the exercise, he said a lesson should have been learnt from past decisions when similar retrenchment exercises were carried out yet the wage bill did not come down.

KEY POSITIONS

“42,132 civil servants were retrenched between 1996 and 2000 and 23,446 between 2000 and 2001 while 26,384 lost their jobs. That number is close to 100,000 yet we did not see evidence of the wage bill changing for the better,” he said. 

“The Government should ask if this exercise will make a difference or it will be in futility.”

He also suggested that the Government re-examines key positions held in State offices. “There should be a thorough scrutiny of positions created in State offices including Parliament,” he said. Odege said the civil servants only take up 20 per cent of the pay and questioned where the other 80 per cent goes to.

Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) will also hold a meeting Tuesday morning to among, other things, deliberate on the matter. A statement from Cotu said the decision to cut-down on jobs in the civil service was against the International Labour Organisation conventions.