Lecturers' strike: Uasu talks resume today
University Academic Staff Union’s Moi University chapter officials and members demonstrate in Eldoret on January 19, 2017 to push for higher pay. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
The government side is expecting give a better counter offer after university staff demanded that they will be ready to take 30percent basic salary increase per annual for four years and 20percent house allowance per annum for four years.
Striking university lecturers will on Thursday resume pay talks with the university management after rejecting Sh10 billion that they had been offered by the government on Monday.
On Friday, non-teaching staff will also meet the university councils negotiating team, led by Prof Isaac Mbeche, for talks aimed at ending the strike that has paralysed learning for four weeks now.
The government is expected to come up with a better counter-offer, after university staff demanded that they are ready to take a 30 per cent basic salary increase per year for four years and a 20 per cent rise in house allowance per year for four years.
ATTEMPTS TO 'DUPE'
“We expect a new offer and not Sh10 billion that we rejected on Monday. We will not negotiate in lump sum. It is a trick.
"After our analysis, we discovered that Sh10 billion was only a 3.2 per cent increase in basic salary and Sh1.6 per cent increase in allowances.
"The rest Sh2 billion was to go to the pension scheme, which was not part of our CBA (collective bargaining agreement),” said Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga.
He accused the universities of trying to dupe them with documents that have not been approved by the National Treasury and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
“We have also seen a sudden increase in the number of staff who were to benefit from the CBA, from 23,000 to 30,312,” said Dr Wasonga, who wondered how staff who were not part of the CBA could be lined up to benefit.
'GAMES HERE'
Kenya University Staff Union (UASU) Secretary-General Charles Mukhwaya said the government must show commitment in the talks or they will not engage in further talks.
“There seems to be games here. There are no letters of undertaking from government agencies,” said Dr Mukhwaya.
“UASU empathises with the more than 500,000 students whose academic programmes have been disrupted. However, it’s the government to blame,” said Dr Wasonga.
On Tuesday, university staff sought the intervention of Parliament, with National Assembly Education Committee vice-chairman Julius Melly receiving their petition and pledging to work to resolve the matter.
