Francis Atwoli says MPs are on the right track over pay

By LONAH KIBET

Kenya: Central Organisation of Trade Unions Secretary-General Francis Atwoli has praised MPs for move to de-gazette a notice on salaries, terming it a ‘welcome development’.

He said the MPs’ move was expected because the Salaries and Remuneration Commission had no right to review the employees’ salaries downwards. “No one is allowed to review employees’ terms and conditions downwards. The commission should have engaged the MPs in free and independent negotiations and not imposing it on them through a gazette notice,” said Atwoli.

He also warned SRC against ‘interfering’ with salaries of employees in trade unions. “They should not extend their thinking to our trade unions. We are able to independently negotiate our own salaries.”

Atwoli was speaking yesterday during a Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotel, Educational Institutions, Hospitals, and Allied fundraising who lost three members to a road accident that left three others injured and hospitalised. They aimed to raise Sh5 million to help settle the hospital bills and assist the families of the departed.