Labour justice systems must evolve with the changing nature of work to ensure women, migrant workers and others in vulnerable employment can access protection and effective remedies, FIDA-Kenya Executive Director Sophie A.K. Kaibiria has said.
Kaibiria made the call during the Fourth Employment and Labour Relations Annual Symposium and Exhibition (ELRASE IV) in Nairobi on September 16, where she participated in a panel discussion on “Labour Mobility in a Changing World of Work.”
Speaking under the theme “Labour Justice Beyond Borders,” she argued that the existence of labour rights in law is not enough if workers cannot practically exercise those rights or obtain remedies when violations occur.
“Labour justice is not only about having rights in law; it is about whether workers, especially women and vulnerable/mobile workers, can exercise those rights and obtain effective remedies in practice,” she said.
According to Kaibiria, workers who move across counties or national borders can face additional barriers because they may be unfamiliar with local laws, institutions and available remedies.
For migrant workers, documentation difficulties, language barriers, social isolation, discrimination and fear of authorities can further complicate access to justice.
She said protection against exploitation and discrimination should not depend on nationality or social status, noting that a justice system is accessible only when workers know where to seek help, can afford to do so and feel safe enough to pursue a complaint.
Women workers face additional challenges, including economic dependence, fear of retaliation, stigma, sexual harassment and gender-based violence.
Kaibiria noted that the formal legal relationship between an employer and employee can mask significant differences in power. A woman reporting misconduct by a supervisor, for example, may risk losing income or facing retaliation, making it harder to report violations or pursue legal claims.
She therefore argued that sexual harassment should be viewed not only as a workplace policy matter but also as an access-to-justice and power issue.
While Kenya's Employment Act provides protection against sexual harassment, she said the priority should be ensuring those protections translate into safe reporting, effective investigations and meaningful remedies.
Kaibiria also pointed to the experience of women affected by sexual harassment in Kenya's tea sector as an example of the evidentiary and procedural challenges survivors may encounter.
Beyond traditional workplaces, she said labour institutions must also respond to the growth of digital, platform-based, remote, informal and other forms of precarious employment.
The changing employment landscape is raising questions about who is responsible for protecting workers when conventional employer-employee relationships become less clearly defined.
Kaibiria called for multiple entry points into the justice system, including labour offices, legal-aid providers, community mechanisms, mediation, referral systems and digital channels.
She also stressed the need to bring legal information closer to women through markets, farms, domestic work networks, transport spaces, digital platforms and community organisations.
For mobile workers, she called for stronger coordination between institutions so that access to protection does not disappear when a worker moves between counties, workplaces or countries.
“We make justice accessible by taking justice to the worker, rather than expecting the most vulnerable worker to navigate a system that was designed for someone with time, money, information and institutional confidence,” she said.
Her intervention placed access to justice at the centre of the wider debate over how labour institutions can respond to an increasingly mobile, digital and diverse workforce.
