City Hall workers get pay rise after fight with SRC

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko Wednesday announced a wage increase of between 15 and 28 percent for City Hall staff in a move that could deny Nairobi cash for projects.

The implementation of the 2012 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) has been delayed for months following opposition for increase by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) in court.

City Hall will require at least Sh1 billion to meet the rise in basic wages for its more than 12,000 workers.

“The High Court on Monday dismissed a petition by SRC and this has now paved the way for us to finally honour the deal. We will implement the CBA this coming month,” said Mr Sonko during the launch of a biometric registration and identification for workers at City Hall yesterday.

Nairobi has struggled to meet its revenue targets since the onset of devolution in 2013 on weak systems, corruption and lack of resources to nab rate cheats.

This signals that additional pay will eat deep into the county’s revenues, denying it resources to build roads, water and sewerage networks and stocking the rickety health centres.

Official data showed that in the year to June, Nairobi government spent Sh14.84 billion on wages of its 12,489 employees.

This represented 56 percent of the actual revenue collection of that financial year that stood at Sh26.3 billion, but surpassed the Sh10.1 billion own-source income like parking and land rates.

In February, striking City Hall workers led by Kenya County Government Workers Union (KCGWU) Nairobi branch secretary Benson Olianga went on strike for several days demanding that SRC give in to their demand for a salary increment and the implementation of the return-to-work formula deal with the county government.

Mr Sonko had also blamed the SRC for the standoff, accusing it of rejecting the deal entered in May 2017, although the county had set aside funds in its supplementary budget to honour the deal.