Uasu protests ‘secret’ payout of Sh6.6bn to university workers

The Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) has protested alleged exclusion and secrecy in the implementation of the Sh6.6 billion that the government offered lecturers in May as part of the 2017-2021 collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

The union alleges that the implementation is mired in disharmony and confusion, in contravention of court orders on the union’s involvement.

Consequently, the union has written to the chairman of the Inter-Public Universities’ Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) Prof Swaba Omari demanding the formation of a committee on Friday this week to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the CBA.

“The union expresses concern that the IPUCCF has blatantly refused to convene the national implementation committee and subsequently implementation has been proceeding in a non-harmonious and conflicting manner in public universities,” the letter by Uasu secretary-general Dr Constantine Wasonga reads.

PAY RISE

The payout will benefit 32,000 staff in 39 public universities who will get a pay rise after Parliament approved it in a supplementary budget in April.

The looming feud will be an unwelcome development as the institutions are preparing to reopen in September following their closure in March to curb the spread of Covid-19.

“I’m awaiting data from all the universities before I give the official position of the union. There is total confusion in the way the payment is being implemented. Some are implementing their own things,” Dr Wasonga told the Nation by phone.

He cites the inconsistencies in his letter to the university administrators. At Egerton, for example, he says “the arrears have been calculated using an accrual or compounding method while a flat rate has been applied at the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, JKUAT and TUK, among others.”

PRORATED ARREARS

Maasai Mara and Multimedia University, Dr Wasonga says, have prorated the arrears while some institutions like Tom Mboya University College “have unexplained additional deductions of up to 30 per cent of the amount to due workers.”

The UoN chapter of Uasu has also written to the vice-chancellor, Prof Stephen Kiama, demanding access to documents that the university used to pay workers’ arrears. The university is the biggest beneficiary of the award, with Sh1.2 billion set to go to its 4,500 workers.

In a letter dated July 17, members of the local joint implementation committee accuse the university administration of paying the CBA arrears “in total disregard to the provisions and guidelines provided for in the CBA which requires the local joint implementation committee” to oversee its implementation.

COMPLAINTS OVER PAYMENTS

The union officials say members of the three unions in the pay deal — Uasu, Kenya University Staff Union and the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospital and Allied — have raised complaints over the payments released one week ago.

“We wrote to the chairman of the Joint Implementation Committee requesting for a number of documents related to the CBA implementation. Unfortunately, up to now, we have neither received the documents nor even a response to our letter,” the letter reads.

They now want Prof Kiama to furnish them with the letter that the Ministry of Education used to disburse the funds and the payment schedules for their audit.

The pay deal is part of the disputed Sh8.8 billion 2017-2021 CBA signed between unions and universities’ management in October 2019.

Its implementation was to start in November 2019 but was delayed because the government had not factored the pay rise in its budget.

In January, Uasu had threatened to call a lecturers’ strike before Education CS George Magoha called them to the negotiating table and struck the deal to include Sh6.6 in the supplementary budget.

Under the CBA, university workers will earn a salary increment of between 5.75 to 6.27 per cent annually for the 2017-2021 period.