An employee collapsed in Nandi County after seeing massive deductions on his payslip, leaving him with no cash.
We are collecting money for the funeral as we speak.
The grand question is, do we hope to get out of this situation when more taxes are coming?
We cannot get out of this crisis. If you look at the Budget Policy Statement, many other things are going to get tougher for the worker.
It is an employment law that workers should not be deducted more than two-thirds of their salary.
The rationale is that it should be on the upwards of 33 per cent. This is getting difficult to enforce because of the kind of taxation that is not planned, both from the employers’ point of view and the workers'.
Workers need to know, in advance, about impending taxes so they can plan their finances.
They are heavily in debt, having taken loans from cooperative societies and digital lenders because of tough circumstances, school fees obligations and other social and economic needs.
When you bring in a tax in between, you are likely to disrupt the carefully balanced budget.
The employer's budget is also thrown into disarray. It is getting very difficult to get even the most basic deductions.
There can only be two things: either the government moves amendments to the law to reduce the threshold, to say 20 per cent, or allow a more sensible way of introducing taxes that doesn’t upset budget plans of civil servants.
Employees have budget plans. When you introduce unplanned taxes just because the taxman has power, it becomes difficult. It is a cause of frustration on many fronts.
When it is a government policy that a particular payment is to be made, there are no two ways around it. Employers have no power to veto the decisions of government and provisions of the law.
Sacco loans, bank loans and mobile loans are some of the facilities causing civil servants sleepless nights.
Kenya County Governments Workers Union secretary general spoke to Star
