Workers of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) trains operating
the Mombasa-Nairobi route took to the streets on Thursday protesting delayed
salaries
.
The workers camped at the offices of China Road and Bridge
Corporation (CRBC) in Syokimau and demanded for payment of their salaries
failure to which they would down their tools next week.
CRBC on Thursday blamed the delay on the refurbishment of
its salary payment system and reviewing of bank account details of staff hired
in June and July.
Our company is debugging the salary system, all information
input and salary calculation depend on manual calculations at present.
"...the newly added Kenyan staff are numerous, their
personal bank account information collection needs a great deal of time,"
said the firm in a statement.
Last week, it emerged that some SGR workers were working
without contracts thus leaving them without any form of legal protection or
medical cover.
While speaking to Kenyans.co.ke on condition of anonymity,
one of the workers revealed that they were yet to be given contracts and in
case of any injuries during their travel, they would be forced to cater for
themselves.
The employee also stated that they were on a six-month
probation period and terms would be improved based on performance after the
said period.
According to Kenya Railways Managing Director Atanas Maina there
had been contract complications because the Chinese operator had asked for more
time to work on the terms the employees would work under.
CRBC, however, promised the workers that money had already
been wired to their accounts.
