Crisis Looms As University Workers Issue A 10-Day Strike Notice

University workers under the KenyaUnion of Domestic Hotels, Educational Institutions, and Hospital Workers (KUDHEIHA); have issued a 10-day strike notice that begins on 20-30 June.

The workers have threatened to cut short their services if the government does not clear the 7.2billion arrears in their 2017-2021 collective bargaining agreement (CBA), an act that could disrupt the university activities as from next month.

Kudheiha Secretary General, Albert Njeru, said they want the arrears to be cleared before June 30 and added that it will be very difficult to continue working harmoniously if this is not done.

According to Mr. Njeru, the CBA was signed and registered in 2020 with a budget of sh13.8 billion but only sh 6.6 billion has been paid yet the del will expire on June 30

Mr. Njeru went ahead to show his concern and worry over the lack of communication on how and when the arrears arising from the registered CBA will be paid.

Earlier on, the Ministry of Education and the Inter public university Council Consultative Forum(IPUCCF) did not come forward when and how the payment was supposed to be made.

“We are demanding the amount to be released before the end of this month as registered by the Industrial Court and above all, as agreed with our employers.” He said.

Mr. Njeru further added that the government instead of increasing, has kept on decreasing capacitation of public universities without public participation, and this takes away the power autonomy of these institutions to come up with commissions that will regulate them.

This is wrong, he said, noting that the government is against fees increment by universities.

“The Education institutions are supposed to get 150% funding. this issue of reducing capacitation and  saying salaries and CBAs should not be registered should come to an end.”

The secretary-general went ahead to show his dissatisfaction with the introduction of precarious work(non-standard or temporary employment) in public universities as well as encouraging the institutions to embrace outsourcing.

“It is very unfortunate that the government is introducing precarious work in our public universities. we need to engage in fair labor practices to avoid any discrimination and precarious employment in Kenya. All contracts for established employees must be open-ended because legally, they cannot be under fixed-term contracts,” said Mr. Njeru.

This comes shortly after the Salaries and Remuneration Commissions freeze the pay hikes for two years earlier this week, citing that the main reason for this is fiscal challenges .they also added that the fact that covid 19 has hit them hard calls for new way 7s of finding solutions.

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