Health workers issue fresh strike notice

Meru Health workers unions' leaders (from left seated) Sammy Muchere of the Public Health Workers Union Nesbitt Mugendi of the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) and Bakari Mugambi of the same union addressing the media on November 28, 2015 in Meru town with other union leaders. They claimed the county government had failed to keep its part of the bargain in a deal that ended a seven day strike on September 7, 2015. Photo By Martin Mwenda/Standard

Health workers are threatening to go on strike because of failure by the county government to fulfill a deal that ended a one-week strike in September.

The medics claimed that the county government had declined to initiate talks after it committed to address the grievances that saw the over 1,600 workers down tools between September 1 and September 7.

Kenya National Union of Nurses (Knun) Meru branch secretary Nesbitt Mugendi said the county government had failed to fulfill any of the over 10 commitments it gave.

"The county government officers we are supposed to negotiate with cannot even commit to formation of a task force to address our grievances, which was a key item in the return-to-work formula we signed," Knun Meru Chairman Bakari Mugambi said.

Speaking during a press conference in Meru town, the officials said they had tried to engage Health Executive William Mulaa, County Secretary Julius Kimathi and Health Chief Officer James Gitonga in vain.

"None of the officials is willing to discuss the formation of the task force and they won't answer our correspondence. It is clear somebody is seeking to block the conclusion of the matter,"Mr Mugendi said.

Christmas gift

Public Health Workers Union Meru branch chairman Samuel Muchere said: "We hope the county government is not planning to give a rude Christmas gift to its residents in form of a paralysed Health service."

The unionists said of the 12 grievances that the county government had pledged to address, it had only partially fulfilled a promise to end under staffing.

"Every time we ask for a meeting, we are promised it will be held tomorrow," Mugendi said.

But Dr Gitonga denied these allegations, saying they were progressing well on addressing the grievances.

"We already constituted the task force but one key member of the union side passed away recently and they will need to replace him first," he said.

He denied claims that union leaders were being ignored, saying last week they held a meeting with the county secretary.

The agreement signed on September 7 stated that all common cadre workers (those with diplomas and below) would be eligible for automatic promotion within two months.

The workers said this was yet to be implemented and urged the county to borrow a leaf from Kisii County which has achieved considerable progress.

Gitonga said the pending promotions were being worked on but the process has been slow because of the large number of those being considered. The government had pledged to immediately confirm all employees on probation.