Court orders Murang’a County govt to pay arrears to reinstated health workers
Health workers from Murang'a County when they appeared in court on February 25, 2015. The Industrial Court in Nyeri has ordered the Murang'a County Public Service Board to pay the workers' their January and February 2015 salary arrears. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The workers are deemed to be county government workers until a case they have filed in court is heard and determined.
- They said the county government had defied court orders which directed that they be reinstated back to work and be paid all their remunerations.
- The county government through lawyer George Ng’ang’a however told the court that they had misinterpreted the earlier order made on February 25, 2015.
- Judge Ongaya also directed the three parties to file submissions in a weeks’ time on whether the health workers should be employed on permanent basis.
The Industrial Court in Nyeri has ordered the Murang’a County government Public Service Board to pay January and February salary arrears to the 177 health workers reinstated by the court.
Judge Byrum Ongaya said the workers are deemed to be county government employees until a case they have filed in court on whether they should be employed on permanent terms is heard and determined.
“By the order made earlier by the court, the health workers were at work and therefore are entitled to be paid their salaries as from January this year without any delay until further orders are made,” he said.
The health workers sued the Murang’a County government on Thursday seeking to be paid their January and February salaries as it had been ordered by the Industrial Court. The workers were recruited under the economic stimulus programme (ESP).
They were also seeking that the Murang’a County Public Service Board secretary and the board members be committed to civil jail for a term of not less than six months for contempt of the court orders.
Through lawyer Emmanuel Awiti, the health workers said the county government had defied court orders that directed that they be reinstated and be paid pending hearing and determination of the case.
“The county Public Service Board has refused to pay all the unpaid salaries and instead of back-dating the health workers’ salaries to January they started paying them starting from February 26 this year,” he said.
MISINTERPRETED EARLIER ORDER
The county government, through lawyer George Ng’ang’a, however, told the court that they had misinterpreted the earlier order made on February 25, 2015.
Mr Ng’ang’a said the health workers had refused to sign an extension of contract offered by the county government after their contracts expired in December 2014.
He said that after they refused to sign new contracts, the Public Service Board went ahead and advertised the vacancies and recruited 47 workers to replace the striking ones.
Mr Francis Makori, representing the National Public Service Board and the Attorney-General, told the court that there was an agreement between the Public Service Board, the Ministry of Health and the Council of Governors that all ESP workers be absorbed on permanent terms by their respective counties.
Judge Ongaya also directed the three parties to file submissions within a week on whether the health workers should be employed on permanent terms.
The case will be heard on April 28.
