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{
    "id": 1024866,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1024866/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 524,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Milgo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13174,
        "legal_name": "Milgo Alice Chepkorir",
        "slug": "milgo-alice-chepkorir"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this Petition from Sen. Cherargei about employees, who were engaged on a contract basis in Nandi County and have not been paid for the last eight months. Under Article 41 of the Constitution, on labour laws, those workers are supposed to be treated with dignity and paid their dues. Furthermore, these workers were contracted and engaged to work in critical conditions, particularly in hospitals where we have the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a challenge. Many people would not wish to work there. We are seeing healthcare workers succumbing to diseases out of being frontline workers. Nobody even knows whether these workers, who are contracted, have the right gear to use, that is, the Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs). We also do not know whether they have ever been paid at all or what conditions they are in when carrying out their jobs. Furthermore, if a contracted worker works beyond six months, under the labour laws, they are supposed to be made permanent. Part of what the Committee that will look into this should do is implore upon the Nandi County to make these employees permanent, because they have worked past six months. They are no longer contracted workers. In addition, we are being told that in the same county the statutory deductions in the name of NHIF and NSSF are being deducted without being remitted. This is an illegality which must be condemned in the strongest terms possible because of the fact that the deductions go out to assist the workers. If these workers were supposed to obtain any loans, they cannot do so. They cannot pay school fees because their monies have been deducted and nobody is remitting them. When this Committee will be conducting investigations, the County Government of Nandi should explain the reason they are deducting workers’ salaries without remitting the same. I am in the Committee on Labour and Social Welfare, and we have been coming across cases where several institutions engage workers without payment. We have seen nurses complain that they have been working and there is nonpayment. It is high time that the people who engage any worker should know the need to exercise caution in terms of ensuring that jobs are done with dignity and people are paid for being contracted. These workers in Nandi County must be paid as a matter of urgency, even before the Petition is brought to conclusion. We are urging the Governor of Nandi County to ensure that the eight months’ salary is paid and the statutory deductions are also submitted. I support the Petition and if it comes to the Committee on Labour and Social Welfare, we shall ensure that we expedite and bring it to conclusion. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker, and I thank the Senator for Nandi for having great concern for the inhabitants of Nandi County."
}