Kidero offers 15 per cent pay rise to City Hall workers
City Hall on Friday became the first county government to sign a Collective Bargain Agreement (CBA) with its workers under the new constitution.
Nairobi county government has acceded to a 15 per cent pay rise for its over 12,000 workers by signing of a Collective Bargaining Agreement with their union.
Under the terms of the agreement, the pay rise takes effect in the new financial year of the 2017 -2018 budget.
The CBA was signed by the Kenya County Government Workers Union Secretary General Roba Duba, the County Public Service Board Chairman Philip Kungu and the Federation of Kenyan Employers at Charter Hall on Friday.
RISING COST OF LIVING
Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero said the pay increase will cushion the county workers against the rising cost of living.
“Inflation is seven and a half per cent per year. Over the last four years, they have not received pay rise, meaning that they are earning 40 per cent less than what they are supposed to,” said Kidero.
The county’s wage bill currently stands at Sh1.25 billion per month. This will now swell to Sh1.43 billion per month, Sh17.16 billion per year.
Dr Kidero said that the rising inflation, slow growth of economy and adverse weather conditions have adversely affected most of the staff, thus reducing their productivity.
“Some of them are unable to satisfactorily fend for their families and serve our residents as expected of them,” he said.
City Hall has 12,729 employees. Some 9,758 of them were inherited from the now defunct Nairobi City Council, 2,412 were devolved from the national government and 559 have been employed by the devolved unit since 2013.
UNSKILLED WORKERS
More than 60 per cent of the workers are aged 50 years and above and most of them are unskilled.
Secretary General Roba Duba said that workers have not received pay rise since 2012, despite the high cost of living in the country.
“This CBA was voluntarily negotiated in accordance with employment law and labor relations. It contains improvement and better interpretation of the old CBAs so that to contextualize in terms of the devolved system,” he said.
Roba said that Nairobi was the first county to sign the CBA with workers union under the 2010 constitution and urged other counties to follow suit.
Nairobi County Secretary Dr Robert Ayisi said that the CBA is a full package that comes with increment in basic salary, allowance and better health cover.
“We have been negotiating for a long time through the KCGWU. This increment is spread over all the cadres and we will take care of everything including monthly pay, leave allowance, medical and everything,” said Dr Ayisi.
