Court orders striking lecturers back to class on Monday
What you need to know:
- Justice Makau faulted lecturers for deliberately failing to attend conciliation meetings to resolve the dispute.
The judge ordered the universities to present the 2017-2021 CBA to the Labour CS within 21 days.
Lecturers on Friday lost their bid to forge ahead with their job boycott after the Employment and Labour Relations court declined to set aside orders declaring the strike illegal.
Even though this is the second time Justice Onesmus Makau has declared the strike as unprotected, he said they are at liberty to move to a higher court for a different opinion.
While making the declaration, Justice Makau said it is contrary to the Labour Relations Act and thus ordered the lecturers to resume duty on Monday.
The judge ordered the universities to present the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreements to the Labour Cabinet Secretary within 21 days.
And for the second time again, he warned universities against victimising any of the lecturers who have participated in the unlawful strike.
“I am not satisfied that lecturers have demonstrated that they will suffer substantial loss if they stay is withheld, if in the unlikely event they succeed in their appeal, they will be free to continue with the strike if the conciliation fails to resolve the dispute,” said Justice Makau.
UNTOLD SUFFERING
The judge added: “On the other hand, if the appeal fails the strike will have inflicted untold suffering on the innocent students and other stakeholders, it is after careful evaluation of the balance between interests of the lecturers and the impact of the continued job boycott that I have declined to grant the stay orders sought.”
In his ruling, Justice Makau faulted the lecturers for deliberately failing to attend conciliation meetings to resolve the dispute stated in the strike notice.
The judge explained this as the reason as to why he could not grant lecturers any relief since they had asked the court to set aside temporary orders issued on March 19, which had declared the strike as unlawful.
The University of Nairobi had separately filed two suits against the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions and Hospital workers and the Kenya Universities Staff Union.
The two represent the non-academic staff from 31 public universities in the country.
Since the non-academic staff have also been on strike, the judge defended the university for taking them to court and consequently ordered that they should resume duty come Monday.
He also directed the non-academic staff on strike should not be victimised for their role in the unprotected strike.
