On October 27, 2021, the Senate Labor and Social Welfare Committee led by Senator Johnson Sakaja of Nairobi met with James Finlays Ltd. management and union officials at the James Finlays office in Kericho. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

The management of James Finlay Tea Company was forced to explain yesterday how to determine the payment rate of the mechanical tea harvester.

The Senate Labor and Social Welfare Committee accused the company of using loopholes in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to exploit harvesters. 

Committee Chairman Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja said that the CBA has flaws in its payment rate.

"It's complicated. The rate for manual picking is very clear, but mechanical tea picking has loopholes, and the company has already taken advantage of this," he said. Continue reading As more and more companies shut down before James Finlay tea, flower farms face turmoil. Workers moved to the Scottish court due to injuries. Tea pickers lose the lawsuit, trying to force James Finlay to publish medical records. Governor Chepworth is now opposed to James Finlay Lai's move to sell flower farms

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The committee held a special meeting at the James Finlay company headquarters in Chipken Bay, Keriko County, where they met with management. 

Finlay Human Resources Director Daniel Kirui acknowledged in response that CBA only recognizes two types of employees; field workers and hand pickers.

“Any other employees who are not picking on site are paid as on-site employees. What happens in mechanical tea picking is that we require employees to pick a certain amount of green tea in order to earn wages equivalent to the monthly wages of on-site employees,” he said. Said.

Kirui said the company is a member of the Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA) and currently costs 15.32 shillings per kilogram of tea picked.

"This means that the daily salary is 689 shillings, which is equivalent to 17,921 shillings per month," he said.

This UK-based company once had 12,000 employees in the hand-picking era, and has now achieved full mechanization of tea picking and reduced the number of employees to 5,000.

He said that since CBA is a negotiation document that applies to multiple tea companies, it is difficult for tea companies to determine the specific rate per kilogram of mechanically picked tea.

"Each company uses different machines. They grow different types of tea," Kerry said.

Senator Kericho Aaron Cheruiyot said that the tea company's decision to lay off 7,000 workers during the mechanization process does not bode well for the Kipsigis community where the tea company is located.

The company owns 5,200 hectares of land with a lease term of 99 years. It has 9 tea plantations across Kericho and Bomet counties.

"When the company can always find a reason for further layoffs, as the leader of Kerico, this is a big problem for us. Now it may be that the community may not see the benefits and needs of the company to continue its tea business here," cut Ruyote said.

"Evidence continues to point out that as the estrangement between local people and businesses has increased, this has led to a surge in vandalism cases."

Henry Omasire, secretary of the national organization of the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (Kpawu), accused the company of overworking low-level employees and rejected the union's call to include mechanical tea pickers in the CBA.

"At the beginning of this year, we tried to negotiate with the company management on this issue, but they rejected the idea. We forced them to record in the meeting minutes that we would set up a subcommittee. We can also invite experts because these machines are a health risk. ," Omasire said.

Thomas Kemboi, deputy secretary-general of Kpawu, said that the union will strive to include a clause on mechanical harvesters in the CBA.

He said: "Employees should not be rated as drivers, nor should they pay the minimum wage."

Before the Senate committee's visit to the company, Senator Christopher Langat of Bomet requested a statement on the 719 workers fired by the tea company on November 19, 2020. James Finlay shares this story related video Katibu Mkuu wa COTU Francis Atwoli ameitaka serikali kutupilia mbali leseni ya James Finlays Nursery facilities are open to Kericho Time’s James Finlay staff to find innovative ways to end fake news. Although every industry is in a protected mode, It seems that the only person who works overtime is the fake news industry. Researchers cited the threat posed by the Kisii garbage dump, an international journal published by the University of Kisii, warning Nyambera in the town of Kisii to continue dumping waste.

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