Doctors who went on strike to miss salaries, governor says
What you need to know:
- If implemented, the lowest paid doctor will take home Sh342,000 while the highest will enjoy Sh940,000. Currently, the lowest a doctor earns is Sh40,000 and the highest Sh500,000.
- According to Dr Ayisi, the move to not pay doctors who participated in the strike was due to a resolution by governors that action should be taken against the health workers.
Over 120 doctors in Nairobi County will not receive their December salaries for participating in an illegal nationwide strike, Governor Evans Kidero said on Tuesday.
The county’s 124 doctors downed their tools demanding a 300 per cent salary increment signed in a 2013 CBA.
If implemented, the lowest paid doctor will take home Sh342,000 while the highest will enjoy Sh940,000. Currently, the lowest a doctor earns is Sh40,000 and the highest Sh500,000.
Speaking on phone the Governor said that only 54 doctors did not participate in the strike.
However, he said that health services in the county had not been paralysed with over 80 per cent of services being offered to patients following a return-to-work deal signed with nurses.
Speaking to the press on Tuesday, the county Secretary Robert Ayisi said that the doctors had no reason to go on strike as the Collective Bargain Agreement was not in the grievances they raised in October strike.
Dr Ayisi said that the doctors had no grievances as they had negotiated with them during their October strike.
He added that the county had also obtained a court order barring the doctors to down tools when they threatened to hold a nationwide strike. The doctors defied the order.
According to Dr Ayisi, the move to not pay doctors who participated in the strike was due to a resolution by governors that action should be taken against the health workers.
Dr Ayisi said that the 124 striking doctors included medical officers and those on internship. He said the county will cancel their internship and that it will ask the ministry to redeploy them.
“Those on internship and are on strike and we will not allow them in our hospitals. Let the ministry find some other counties to redeploy them,” said Dr Ayisi.
He said that the county hospital are also run by over 40 consultants and 20 high level medics handling emergency and maternity cases.
He said that the county doctors had been given confirmation letters, salary arrears paid and promotion letters during the last strike.
"Our doctors had no reason to join the strike as we had already signed a return-to-work formula during their October strike. We will not pay them as they did not work for us and we are their employer," said Dr Ayisi.
