This archive report was first published on 11 December 2019.
On December 11, 2019, the Employment and Labour Relations Court ordered Migori County government to pay accrued salary arrears amounting to Sh134 million to over 1,000 former and current employees of defunct councils.
The arrears date back to 2012 and are part of the pending bills accrued from the defunct municipal, county, and town councils that morphed into Migori County in 2013.
ERC presiding judge Nduma Nderi dismissed an application by the county government to withdraw from an earlier commitment to honour the pay, stating, "There is no clear reason as to why the county government, which had started to pay the arrears, should stop. Let them continue to pay as they had promised."
Already, the judge said he had seen the county pay Sh28 million out of the Sh134 million and questioned why they were seeking to go back on their decision.
Lawyer Rodgers Sagana had filed an application in which the county government sought to recant its earlier promise to pay the whole sum in three instalments.
However, the plaintiffs' lawyer, Jeff Yogo, objected to the application, wondering why the county wanted to recant its earlier commitment, which was a mutual consent between the union officials, their counsel, and the county attorney in 2015 after the workers sued.
