The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) is planning to overhaul how civil servants’ salaries are negotiated, as part of broader efforts to curb persistent strikes within the public sector.
SRC Chairperson Sammy Chepkwony said the proposed reforms will primarily target Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs), which he identified as a key gap fuelling industrial disputes among public workers.
He said all levels and arms of government had been cooperative with SRC in implementing its policy advisories, noting that the remaining challenges stemmed largely from policy and legislative gaps around remuneration, particularly in collective bargaining.
According to Chepkwony, SRC is fast-tracking efforts to close these gaps following resolutions made during the National Productivity and Performance Conference held in June.
He explained that the current CBA negotiation process fails to sufficiently factor in productivity or the government’s fiscal capacity, often assuming unlimited funds are available to meet salary demands even when public finances are constrained.
Chepkwony said the planned reforms would align salary negotiations more closely with productivity levels and the government’s ability to sustainably finance public sector wages.
The National Productivity and Performance Conference, held from June 17 to 19, focused on productivity and efficient service delivery, with wage determination based on productivity emerging as a key discussion point.
SRC has since gazetted new regulations providing a structured framework for remuneration reviews, collective bargaining, productivity and performance, requiring wage decisions to account for economic performance, affordability, cost of living, labour market trends and productivity.
Chepkwony added that tightening the legal and policy framework around CBAs would help prevent recurring disputes involving public servants in the future.