Workers pick tea at Chagaik estate in Kericho.Tea workers in multinational firms will down tools on Tuesday, October 17. [Photo: NMG]The Kenya Agricultural and Plantation Workers’ Union (KAPWU) has said tea workers will down tools on Tuesday, October 17 which will paralyze activities at the tea international firms, which account for 40 percent of tea produced in Kenya.KAPWU secretary-general Francis Atwoli says plantations have refused to honour the directive reached by Labour Court and frustrated talks on the matter."Since 2014, tea workers have seen no wage increases apart from the 15 percent that the employer decided to award, even though the court had ordered 30 percent, we want that court ruling to be fully implemented failure to which the strike starts on October 17," Atwoli says as quoted by the Nation.However, the tea multinationals say wages could account for over half their cost after trade unions issued a 7-day strike notice to force implementation of a 30 percent salary rise awarded by the court in 2014."By increasing the wages by 30 percent, then it means the wage bill of these companies will go up to 54 percent. This will obviously subject us to losses," Apollo Kiarii, Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA) chief executive officer, says as quoted by Nation.Kiarii says the move by KAPWU is ill-timed and will affect the growers at a time the sector is trying to recover from losses occasioned by drought, while also noting that the matter was still in Court of Appeal and it was wrong for the union to call for a strike before a ruling is made.KTGA successfully appealed the ruling of the Labour Court last year stalling the wage increase following a stay order.

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