The Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Labour and Social Protection Dr. Alfred Mutua Dr. Alfred Mutua has held talks with the leadership of the labour movement led by Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General (SG) Francis Atwoli with an aim of enhancing dialogue within the labour sector.
Speaking over the concerns of the labour sector for the growth of the economy, the CS said that industrial strikes should not be the first option but instead, workers should embrace dialogue as they raise their issues before issuing the strike notice.
Dr. Mutua said the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection office is ready to ensure that every citizen who wants to get employment abroad, will be facilitated and catered for in that endeavour.
The CS made the remarks on Tuesday at his office in Nairobi during a press conference where he noted that there are 452,000 job opportunities open for Kenyans and the government will facilitate the citizens to get their passports.
He at the same time vowed to bring together all the world impactors and bring together all the groups that have different views such as the teachers, the employer, the reservation workers, and ask them to listen to each other.
“Let us look at everything. But also, we need to be cognizant of where we are as a country, in terms of our economics, in terms of where we are going,” he said.
The CS said there is a need to have teams that will sit down and listen to each other and ensure that everyone gets their rights since the employees, employers and the unions have their own rights.
Dr. Mutua promised the country that he will do whatever he can to stop the strike before it happens, stressing that it comes down to mutual respect and understanding for each other for things to go well and by not sitting down with people after the strike.
The CS maintained that the Ministry wants to see money flowing from overseas, adding that he will get into the space for discussions, generate good ideas that have been written, analyze them and implement some which will help to streamline the city and enable citizens to go and work abroad.
He announced actual missions and discussions with the job agencies on how the Ministry will move forward as they get jobs for the people which include opportunities such as engineers, nurses, barristers, hospitality, drivers, security agents among others basically cutting across the spectrum and architects of all careers and not just one area.
“These are not just jobs for one area, they’re jobs for all types,” he stated, adding that the ministry will create ways for the economy to pick up as it gets into the system of bringing more jobs into the country for the citizens.
In his remarks, COTU SG Francis Atwoli urged the CS to make sure that those who are travelling for jobs abroad are safe and encouraged him to streamline the National Employment Authority to be a department of the Ministry and not an independent organ that circumvents the administration from making sure that there is proper supervisory mechanism that knows who is going out of the country.
Further, Atwoli appealed to the CS to include the young generation in employment opportunities and also work hard in finding out how to double the efforts on productivity by having an independent productivity center funded by both government and private sector to provide the economic data for any person who needs to know how the economy is running.
On matters of the Looming strikes, the SG asked Dr Mutua to try and make sure that once the union has issued a strike notice, the CS should immediately convene a meeting of those concerned and sort it out.
“We as a responsible trade union, we don’t like strikes because they cannot be well managed by poor negotiators, but with the best negotiators, once a strike is issued by the union, you should enter into negotiation and agreement to stop people from entering the streets,” he maintained.
He mentioned that COTU carries out industrial development of the sector before issuing a strike notice by checking how much the Ministry is trying to deny workers’ returns in terms of profit among others since COTU has a serious economic and research department.
Atwoli added that COTU will support any endeavor to correct any abnormalities that will bring competent workers into the labour commission since the ministry of labour is important and requires a lot of money.
He urged the CS to mind the welfare of the citizens who are working abroad and assured that it will help the government to grow the economy and employ more people.
By Sharon Atieno
