TEA GROWERS WARN ON RISING LABOUR COSTS

Kenya is the world’s leading exporter of black tea. PHOTO | FILE 

By JAMES KARIUKI

Rising demands for better wages by workers in the tea sector risk discouraging investments and hurting the economy, the Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA) said on Wednesday.

On Monday June 20, 2016 the Employment and Labour Relations Court made a judgement to improve terms for employees which KTGA says amounts to increases of about 60 per cent.
“Such wage increases clearly jeopardise the tea industry’s future sustainability,” the lobby group said in a newspaper ad.
Kenya is the world's number one exporter of black tea from which it earned about Sh125 billion last year.
The lobby group said that labour costs account for half of total costs and that this increase will raise production costs by about 9 per cent. KTGA said this increase plus previous increases since 2009 amount to a 104 per cent pay rise.
The group says the trend will discourage investments and hurt the economy.

CREDIT: NATION MEDIA