No increase in wages ahead of Labour day, FKE CEO Mugo

There shall be no minimum wage increment this year ahead of the International Labour day celebrations, Executive Director and CEO Federation of Kenya Employers Jacqueline Mugo has said.

Leading up to the event, Mugo noted that there have been conversations between the agriculture wages council and the general wages council on the matter.

She said they are very concerned that the tribunal has huge demands that they want to see in terms of an increase in the minimum wages.

“I want to remind social partners that the call for wage increase must be informed by an honest evaluation of the economy, rather than mere political statements and agitations”.

Mugo noted that all must be alive to the fact that Kenya is still recovering from the depressed economic activities for the years 2020 and 2021 and now the upcoming General Elections.

“It’s a reality that businesses have not recovered from Covid 19 and we still feel the impact of it and most enterprises are not back to where they were pre-covid and pandemic.”

In reality, the CEO noted that the economy contracted by Sh. 1.0 trillion.

The base growth being experienced is attributed to government spending on infrastructure growth and not because of an increase in economic activities.

She said Kenya is not out of the woods yet, therefore any increase in wages will worsen the enterprise, unemployment and poverty situation in the country.

 “So it’s not possible for us to increase the minimum wages at this particular time certainly not by the double digits percentages that workers are demanding that unfortunately seemed to be supported by the independent bodies from the wages council”.

The CEO added “We believe that the responsible thing for us to do as labour sector leaders is to stabilize this environment and allow businesses to recover so that the year 2023 we can look at how to improve the pay for our people”.

She, however, noted that Kenyans are suffering and the standards of living are high.

The CEO added that if they increase the minimum wages, it will be unsustainable and they will be unable to employ more people.

She added that is that the current political situation makes it impossible and very difficult for some of the business to continue to grow.

“We want to appeal to our social partners to adopt a reasonable approach and agree that we give time for businesses to recover."

Mugo was speaking during the 41st FKE Western Kenya Regional Annual General meeting in Kisumu themed “Adapting to the changing labor market in the face of the General Elections 2022.

She noted that the purpose of the AGM was to establish the status of enterprises in the region, conduct branch elections, discuss the employers manifestoes and inform members of the recent legislative changes and their impact on business.