Recently, reports emerged that the Kenya National Union of Post Primary Education Teachers was struggling financially owing to the failure by the Teachers Service Commission to remit monthly dues from its members for the last three months.
The move by the TSC is attributed to Kuppet’s decision to proceed with strike in August.
The tactic by TSC is nothing new.
It is a favoured union busting tactic it unleashed against the hitherto giant Kenya National Union of Teachers not so long ago with devastating consequences.
The case of Kuppet and Knut demonstrate the challenges confronting organised labour in the country as it strives to advance constitutionally guaranteed worker rights.
Despite the challenges, labour has continued to affirm its pride of place, as a potently efficient lubricant oiling the country’s democratic machine.
This year has been particularly tough, and labour has proven its potency as a movement that is equal to the task.
It has leveraged and breathed life into the various constitutional and legislative guarantees accorded to it.
Right from engagement in industrial action, organising collective bargaining, litigation, as well as policy and legislative advocacy; all conceivable avenues have been tried and tested.
Various groups of workers, through their respective unions, have come out to exercise their right to strike as enshrined under Article 41 of the Constitution.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union and the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers led medical health in weeks-long strike earlier in the year to push for better working conditions.
Similar case has been witnessed under the education sector, with Kuppet rallying its members.
Currently, the University Academic Staff Union members are on strike.
This comes hot on the heels of an earlier one in September that ran concurrently with that of the Kenya University Staff Union.
Following reports of possible takeover of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by Adani, the Kenya Aviation Workers Union mobilised its members to stage a strike in September across all major airports in the country.
E-hailing drivers have not been left behind either, with their decision to call attention to their plight. Industrial action has been complemented by other steps, including litigation.
Labour has tested the judicial component of the country’s democratic institutions, easily justifying the centrality of the Employment and Labour Relations Court.
Two examples merit mentioning.
Content moderators continue to fight the decision by Meta, owner of Facebook, who seek to extricate itself from responsibility, claiming that Kenya’s judicial system has no jurisdiction over it.
In September, the Court of Appeal asserted that Meta can be sued in Kenyan courts.
Recently, KAWU filed a case at the High Court challenging the proposed leasing of JKIA.
Labour has equally been active at the policy and legislative advocacy front.
At the beginning of the year, the government, through the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, started a process aimed at reviewing the country’s five core labour laws.
As part of the tripartite, and under the auspices of the National Labour Board, the Central Organisation of Trade Unions is actively engaged in the process.
Cotu is equally invested in the process aimed at ratifying and domesticating key International Labour Organisation conventions.
It is courtesy of Cotu that President William Ruto committed last year during Labour Day that Kenya would ratify both Conventions 189 and 190; respectively on domestic workers and violence and harassment in the world of work.
With the government’s continued profiling of labour migration as vital for Kenya’s growth, labour is involved in the effort aimed at streamlining the space.
Labour is closely monitoring the development of the Labour Migration Management Bill, a key legislation that is aimed at addressing the teething challenges affecting the sector.
Even though a lot more remains to be achieved, the centrality of labour in oiling the country’s democratic machine cannot be gainsaid.
