Atwoli pushes for firms to recognise mobile money agents as employees

 

Cotu secretary general Francis Atwoli has called for laws to cushion Kenyans working in the gig economy.

In a statement on Thursday, Atwoli said that any appropriate definition of an employee, in regards to the changing world of work, should not fail to classify M-Pesa agents and Airtel Money agents as employees of Safaricom and Airtel, respectively.

He questioned why the hardworking Kenyans, bringing revenue to the companies while working as agents cannot be recognised as employees.

“For instance, as of April 2020, before Safaricom temporarily removed transaction costs for amounts below Sh1,000, the declared revenue that Safaricom received, that financial year, from M-Pesa agents was about Sh85 billion while from voice was about Sh95 billion,” Atwoli said.

He continued, “It is, therefore, our position that all the M-Pesa agents are workers of Safaricom and must be treated as such. Over and above that, Safaricom must allow for the unionisation of their workers.”

Cotu’s move comes following a UK’s Supreme Court landmark ruling that determined Uber Drivers are “workers” and not “self-employed”, as was otherwise classified by Uber.

Atwoli said that the ruling saw Uber reclassify about 70,000 UK Uber drivers as workers, making them entitled to a minimum wage of about Sh1,300 per every hour of trips made.

He added, “We would like to note that it is just a matter of time before Safaricom starts declaring losses on Voice and Data revenues, just like many telephone companies around the world, thus making it very dependent on these M-Pesa agents.”

Also, the union said that it is in the process of moving to court to coerce Uber and other digital taxi companies to reclassify their Kenyan drivers as workers.

Cotu has also demanded that Safaricom allows their current workers to be unionized so that they may enjoy the benefits that accrue under labour relations.  BY THE STAR