Nyeri County workers threaten to strike over delayed October salaries
Union officials from Nyeri County join hands in show of solidarity after addressing a press conference outside the governor’s office in Nyeri Town on November 23, 2015. They threatened to down their tools by Tuesday if the October salaries do not reflect in their accounts by then. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The union leaders also complained over the county government’s tendency to dishonour its circular to pay workers in time.
- The union leaders cited a memo dated November 13, 2015 in which the county head of public service Wambui Kimathi had promised to pay the October salaries by November 19.
Nyeri County workers have threatened to go on strike over delayed October salaries.
Represented by the union officials, the workers who include civil servants, nurses and other county workers have given the county government a 24-hours ultimatum to deposit the money into their accounts failure to which they will withdraw their services come Tuesday.
“We are urging all our 3,500 members to boycott work tomorrow if the county fails to pay the salaries.
“The county government should from now hence forth pay workers in the stipulated time which is the 30th or 31st of every month,” said Samuel Mundia, the Nyeri Executive Secretary of the Union of Kenya Civil Servants.
“We are very much aggressive about this. We don’t get sitting allowances like them.
“We have had enough consultations with the county government; they should give us our salaries today,” said Mary Muthoni, the chairman of Kenya County Government Union.
FAILED TO HONOUR CIRCULAR
The union leaders also complained over the county government’s tendency to dishonour its circular to pay workers in time.
The union leaders cited a memo dated November 13, 2015 in which the county head of public service Wambui Kimathi had promised to pay the October salaries by November 19.
“My office received communication from the county executive in-charge of Finance that the county Treasury has now received the disbursement for the month of October from the National Treasury.
“Kindly bear with us and be assured that this situation is being addressed to avoid recurrence,” said the memo.
When contacted, the county government said they had released the salaries and blamed the delay on hitches by Central Bank of Kenya
The strike threat comes two weeks after the county assembly approved a motion allowing Finance executive Dr Charles Githinji to obtain a Sh215 million loan to pay salaries of county workers and MCAs.
The temporary overdraft would ensure that money is disbursed into the accounts by the 25th of every month.
The Nyeri County government would carry the burden of the interest accrued from the overdraft.
