Government employees who have been asked to stay home due to the Coronavirus pandemic may soon find themselves with reduced salaries if the spread of the disease persists beyond three months.
Labour Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui made the revelation Thursday morning in an interview with KBC channel 1.
He further explained that after the lapse of the 30 days paid leave, the government will extend the period for another 15 days but, if things don’t change for the better, the CS said the government will have no choice but pay half salaries.
The CS revealed that he was in talks with Central Organisation of Trade Union (Cotu) and the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE).
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Should that happen, it would be a big blow to employees who are already struggling with a high cost of living.
The Union of Kenya Civil Servants (UKCS) has warned that it would challenge any move to reduce salaries for its members in court.
President Uhuru Kenyatta last month while announcing further Covid-19 measures encouraged State Agencies to establish and implement frameworks for staff to work from home.
He directed that all State and Public Officers with pre-existing medical conditions and/or aged 58 years and above to take leave.
“I hereby order and direct that all State and Public Officers with pre-existing medical conditions and/or aged 58 years and above, serving in Job Group S and below or their equivalents, take leave or forthwith work from home, excluding personnel in the security sector and other essential services as outlined in the circular issued to the Public Service on 16th March 2020”, announced the President.
Governments around the world have been particularly worried about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on wages and salaries as businesses scale down operations or completely shut down.
Those in the private sector in the country have suffered massive job losses owing to the pandemic.
Kenya has so far reported 303 Covid-19 cases and the numbers are bound to increase as mass testing gets underway. The government plans to conduct 250,000 coronavirus tests by end of June.
Companies struggle to survive in the wake of a curfew, ban on movement among other stringent measures enforced by the government to contain the deadly virus.
Top executives in the country President Kenyatta says his deputy William Ruto have taken voluntary salary cuts to mitigate the spread of coronavirus.
Chelagui disclosed that the government has set aside Ksh 23 billion to cushion the informal sector from the vagaries of Coronavirus.
He said out of the amount, Ksh10 billion will be under his ministry and will be channelled towards social protection while Ksh13 billion will be under the ministry of finance aimed at cushioning small and medium enterprises.