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Serem urged striking public officers to realise that if the government acts and increases salaries due to pressure, there is a likelihood of plunging the country in a situation where it cannot maintain salaries in future/MUTHONI NJUKI

Kenya

Salary scrutiny for State officers to roll over to 2013

Serem urged striking public officers to realise that if the government acts and increases salaries due to pressure, there is a likelihood of plunging the country in a situation where it cannot maintain salaries in future/MUTHONI NJUKI

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 6 – The Salaries and Remuneration Commission on Thursday said it will finish analysing inconsistencies and complains of State officers next June, and set up new salaries.

Commissioner (Rtd) Brigadier Samuel Kirugi said the commission has proposed for the review of salaries and remuneration for State officers every four years to ensure the offices attract professionals who are compensated according to their work.

“Come 30th of June 2013, all these issues should have been cleared so we can embark on a new process of determining and setting up salaries in Kenya. It is then that we have proposed that salaries be reviewed in four years cycles. It means that all workers, unions and employers should adjust themselves to fit into those four year cycles,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, the commission’s chairperson Sarah Serem urged striking teachers, lecturers and doctors to respect institutions handling their demands and agree to dialogue.

Serem urged striking public officers to realise that if the government acts and increases salaries due to pressure, there is a likelihood of plunging the country in a situation where it cannot maintain salaries in future.

“The commission is concerned that in the process of the strike, facts have been distorted and the due process of collective bargaining is not being comprehensively pursued. The issues of wage bill and the impact to the economy many not be critically analysed and thus the sustainability and the implication to the future generation,” she explained.

She said that most of the demands requested by the teachers had been met and also complained over inconsistencies in what they were demanding for.

Serem asked them to audit what had been offered out of the 300 percent increase they were asking the government to release.

According to her, even without a survey, the 300 percent was ‘unreasonable and unsustainable’. She urged the teachers to follow guidelines given by the commission to substantiate what they should actually be earning.

“Three hundred percent even before we put it in a survey is unreasonable. But we cannot talk about it being reasonable or not. It is not a question of sitting in a boardroom and saying we need 300 percent, what is the basis of it. We are telling the employer and the union, give us the justification,” she asserted, “Let’s know how you arrived at 300 percent.”

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She regretted that most industrial strikes had defied court orders and even violated rights of other Kenyans who require services.

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