Dockers back MP's demand

Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - 00:00 -- BY CHARLES MGHENYI
THE Dock Workers Union have backed the MPs in their push for salary increment. In a statement to the press, the union general secretary Simon Sang said the Salaries and Remuneration Commission should create a dialogue with labour experts to see when the salaries should be cut.
 “The only situation where salaries are cut is where a balance sheet of an organization is red and there are indications that recovery will take some time,” he said in the statement.
 Sang said the commission should not cut salaries but bridge the gap between the highest paid and the lowest. He said they support the decision by COTU secretary general Francis Atwoli that SRC's move to cut the MPs' salaries is not justified.
“They should consider the Akiwumi Report of 2006 which indicated the magnitude and responsibility of the the legislators,” he said. “SRC should not use their constitutional protection to suppress the right of the employees including parliamentarians. International labour practise demand that an employer cannot reduce any benefit that have been enjoyed for more than six months.”
 MPs have been in a tussle with SRC over salaries after their Sh851,000 per month was cut down to Sh555,696 and now the maximum pay an MP can earn is pegged at Sh740,927.
 President Uhuru Kenyatta, in his official parliament opening speech, said the MPs should consider the wage bill which stands at 12 per cent beyond the seven per cent internationally required standard.
 Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi caused an uproar from the public and civil societies when he openly defended the MPs’ bid to demand for salaries, threatening to disband it.
 http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-117844/dockers-back-mps-demand