Lecturers to get huge payouts after deal

The Universities Academic Staff Union leaders address the media on February 17, 2017. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Under the signed deal, it was agreed that the lecturers will be paid in full, all the arrears accruing from the signed deal which will be backdated to July, 2013 at a date not later than June 30, 2017.

Public university lecturers are set for huge cash windfall in accumulated arrears after agreeing to resume work after the signing the Sh6 billion 2103-2017 collective bargaining agreement on Tuesday.

Details of the return-to-work formula signed by the university staff union, UASU, and Inter Public University Consultative Council Forum (IPUCCF) reveal that the highest paid academic staff, full professors, will get in excess of Sh1 million in arrears while the lowest paid staff, tutorial fellows and assistant lecturers, will pocket over Sh800, 000.

Under the signed deal, it was agreed that the lecturers will be paid in full, all the arrears accruing from the signed deal which will be backdated to July, 2013 at a date not later than June 30, 2017.

The CBA’s highlight was a 17.5 percent increase in basic salary awarded to the university academic staff. This means that the lecturers will get a corresponding percentage salary adjustment calculated from what they were earning as the base figure.

UASU secretary-general Dr Constantine Wasonga said after the inking of the deal that under the signed CBA, all academic staff will benefit from arrears that have accrued over the four years of the CBA, effective from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2017.

What this means, therefore, is that full professors will get a total of Sh37,057 monthly in arrears which if calculated over the period of the CBA, approximately 48 months, will give an individual full professor a windfall of over Sh1.7 million (Sh1, 778, 736).

The second highest staff in the university ranking, an Associate professor, will pocket between Sh1.03 million and Sh1.5 million for the lowest and highest paid respectively. This is from a salary increase of Sh21, 517 and Sh30, 268 for the lowest and highest paid in that order.

Senior lecturers who were being paid between Sh94, 215 and Sh135, 243 will now earn between Sh110, 703 and Sh158, 911 representing an increase of Sh16, 488 and Sh23, 688 respectively. This increase, when fully implemented, will net the senior lecturers between Sh791, 424 and Sh1.14 million.

Lecturers, on the other hand, are set to reap in Sh998, 448 in arrears under the period of the signed deal factored through a salary increment of Sh20, 801 per month while tutorial fellows and assistant lecturers, lowest remunerated staff, will get Sh838, 320 in total.

All these are exclusive of the house allowance increment that was contained in the deal where a 3.9 percent was awarded to the lecturers across the board with a full professor due an increase of Sh2, 765 and an assistant lecturer will benefit from a Sh1, 935.

Dr Wasonga termed the deal ‘the best under the circumstances’ as it agreed to harmonise the salaries for all workers.