 |
| COTU boss Francis Atwoli. |
The increase of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) deductions from the present KES 200 to the 6% rate of an employee's monthly wage is something that the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU), via Secretary General Francis Atwoli, says it completely supports.
Atwoli claims that the increase is long overdue and calls the present deductions "seriously insufficient."
According to a portion of their statement,"...in developing a worker-friendly NSSF Act, COTU (K) must champion and advocate for the expansion of social protection and or retirement benefits, first, horizontally to increase the coverage to include the jua kali sector (informal sector), and second, vertically to enhance the rate to realize appropriateness for pensions and benefits.
Atwoli supported the unions' choice, claiming that the present deduction risks pensioners' old age poverty and urging Kenyans to accept the higher rates.
"A worker earning 50,000 a month and having worked for 30 years would get KES 2.1 million (subject to inflation) at retirement," he added, "after deductions of 6% and an equivalent top-up from the employer," Atwoli said.
Atwoli talked about the lawsuit against NSSF and said that COTU does not have a case against the government organization right now. He used an earlier case as an example.
"In 2014, [COTU] filed a lawsuit asking for a ruling to halt the NSSF Act of 2013's implementation due to two factors: first, workers through COTU (K) were not represented on the NSSF board; and second, the NSSF lacked a substantive managing trustee who would have been in charge of overseeing the act's implementation."
After the two issues above were taken care of, COTU dropped the complaint in October 2020.
Post a Comment
What is your say on this