South Sudanese staffs working at Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) went on strike on Monday after they say the bank failed to respond to their demands to adjust salaries following the devaluation of the South Sudanese pound.
Langalafa James Oriho, deputy chairman of the staff association at KCB told reporters yesterday that they will continue with their peaceful strike until the bank administration sorts out their issues.
He explained that the strike came after two months of negotiation with the bank after the devaluation of the South Sudanese pound. Oriho further said that the other staffs working in the ten state branches are also on strike.
Many customers were seen lined up at KCB’s Buluk branch yesterday, where they were served by a few non-South Sudanese bank workers who have not joined the strike.
A client called Samson said, “I came this morning to the branch in Munuki, I was told that the staff were on strike, then I decided to come to Buluk but unfortunately as you can see people are very many.”
“I think the administration should sort this issue because if this continues for two more days then they will also develop another problem with clients,” he added.
Paul Garang, the chairman of the KCB National Staff Association, said that they were seeking a 600% increase to their pay to match the devaluation of the South Sudanese pound that was announced in December.
“It has been months since the devaluation process started. And at some point we have reached deadlock because we are not agreeing. The banks employs mostly South Sudanese… and there are a few experts, mostly Kenyans. During the devaluation process these Kenyans had their salaries adjusted automatically to the devaluation multiplier that is by 600 percent.”
“The main reason of us being here is simple: we need our salaries to be adjusted by a devaluation multiplier that is 600 percent,” he said.
The head of the staff apologized to the bank’s customers for any damage caused by the strike. “We want apologize to our customers, that is the bank customers, the bank has thousands of customers in South Sudan, this is the largest commercial bank. So we apologize for any inconvenience that this action might cause to them,” said Garang.