Sources privy to the issue confided to The Weekly Vision that this move could be an attempt by the COTU boss to buy the support of union representatives, going by the resentment from workers over the two punitive levies. Last month, at a similar meeting convened at the Tom Mboya Labour College in Kisumu, Mr. Atwoli came face-to-face with agitated union leaders over the punitive levies, forcing the embattled SG into dishing out Ksh. 100,000 to each delegate touted as a Christmas gift
By The Weekly Vision Team
Embattled Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli has convened an emergency meeting slated for Wednesday, January 24, 2024, to avert a huge fallout with affiliated unions.
The meeting will be held at the COTU headquarters, with all secretary generals of affiliated unions expected to attend. The ‘consultative meeting’ comes at a time when workers feel the pain regarding deductions by the government to fund both the Affordable Housing and Social Health Insurance Levies.
Sources privy to the issue confided to The Weekly Vision that this move could be an attempt by the COTU boss to buy the support of union representatives, going by the resentment from workers over the two punitive levies. Last month, at a similar meeting convened at the Tom Mboya Labour College in Kisumu, Mr. Atwoli came face-to-face with agitated union leaders over the punitive levies, forcing the embattled SG into dishing out Ksh. 100,000 to each delegate touted as a Christmas gift.
The AHL (Affordable Housing Levy) provisions became effective on July 1, 2023. As per the new amendments to the Employment Act, 2007, both employees and employers are to each pay monthly AHL equivalent to 1.5% of the employee’s gross salary, a burden most employees and employers are finding hard to shoulder, leading to the shutting down of businesses across the country.
In the past, secretary general Francis Atwoli has hit out at unions that are opposing the housing levy. He termed it regrettable that a constitutional right and an agreement between the government and workers are being politicised.
Recently, the government got a nod from the Court of Appeals to Levy the Controversial Social Health Insurance Fund lifting an order barring the implementation of the Insurance Fund. The ruling came following an appeal by Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha.
“We think that given what has been sworn by the CS, there is a real and present danger to the health rights of countless citizens who are not parties to the litigation pending before our courts. We are persuaded that the confusion, the lacuna, and the risk and harm to citizens pending the hearing and determination of the appeal is a price too dear to pay, and it would have the effect of rendering the appeal nugatory,” the appellate court said in its ruling.
“We hereby suspend the orders of the High Court restraining the implementation and/or enforcement of the Social Health Insurance Act, 2023; the Primary Health Care Act, 2023; and the Digital Health Act, 2023,” the court said. The implementation of the Act was stopped in November last year following a petition by Joseph Enock Aura.
The development has put union leaders and workers at loggerheads, with a number threatening to withdraw membership from COTU, whose leadership, they claim, has gone to bed with the government.
