Flower farmers in Naivasha are now employing workers on contract in a bid to address the rising wage bill according to the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU).
The move has attracted the wrath of the union with fears that more workers could lose their jobs in the coming year.
Early in the year, Oserian limited which is one of the largest flower farms in Naivasha laid off over 2,000 workers and put them on contract.
The farm attributed the laying off to poor European market and the high cost of production in the last couple of years with the prices remaining stagnant.
“We have contracted out all our flower packing operations and similarly put all our non-rose crop production on a contract basis,” said the farm while defending its actions.
According to Ferdinand Juma the KPAWU, the new move spelt doom for the labor sector as workers on contract were not members of union.
Juma said that the new trend was spreading from one farm to another adding that job security was a major concern in the sector.
“We have seen a new trend where farmers are now employing their workers on contract basis and this means lesser earnings and crisis for the sector,”
He said that investors were employing workers on seasonal basis meaning that they could not get the annual pay rise as it’s per the labor law.
Juma identified Oserian, Shalimar, Beautyline and Olij as some of the farms that had already placed majority of their working force on contract.
A senior manager from one of the farm however defended the move saying that the cost of labor in the last five years had shot up by 65 percent adversely affecting their revenue.
“The cost of power has shot up by 27 percent while that of chemical has gone by 55 and that of fertilizer by 53 percent,” he noted.
The manager who declined to be named expressed his concern over the future of the sector noting that the country was facing stiff competition from neighboring Ethiopia.
“We are faced by many challenges including the rising cost of energy, wages, taxes, farm inputs, security and bureaucracy,”
“We are concerned by the high number of taxes and licenses that we are supposed to pay and we are calling on the county governments to consider reducing this,” he said.