Workers at an EPZ firm in Mombasa went on strike yesterday to push for better pay and improved working conditions.

About 3,000 employees of Emke EPZ Garments Ltd in Changamwe vowed not to resume work until their grievances were addressed.

The workers, majority of them women, camped at the factory's compound from the morning as the management refused to address them.

The future of the factory hangs on the balance with the strike coming just a week after Trade and Industry Minister Mukhisa Kituyi closed the Lihua Garment Factory on the same EPZ zone.

The Emke managers refused to talk to the Press. Journalists were held back at the gate by security guards.

The workers said the firm's 600 permanent employees were being paid Sh120 per day, while similar garment firms in Nairobi paid Sh300 per day.

Casuals employees earned between Sh140 and Sh180 per day, they said.

The employer had failed to give them pay slips, and did not remit their monthly contributions to the National Social Security Fund and National Hospital Insurance Fund.

Since the firm opened in 1994, they claimed, they had not been given maternity leave and allowances.

Those who took a break to give birth were sacked, they said.

The firm, they added, had no medical cover for its employees.

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