SRC blamed for city health workers strike

Patients outside Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital. They could not access services following the ongoing health workers strike. [photo: willis awandu/standard]

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) is to blame for the health workers' strike, says the county government.

The commission is accused of failing to expeditiously address the huge disparities in salaries and indirectly causing the strike.

This blame game comes as the health workers' strike entered its fifth day with Governor Evans Kidero threatening to dismiss them if they fail to return to work.

Health Executive Bernard Muia said they have been unable to address the issue of salary disparities of health workers serving in the same job group partly because of SRC.

"One of the key issues raised by health workers is the salary disparities. If SRC had dealt with this issue earlier and shared their recommendations with us, we would have resolved the issue much earlier," he said.

He added: "We have waited for too long to hear from SRC. We have decided to address the issue internally as we wait for their word."

The Standard has learnt that there are huge salary disparities between health workers from the national government, former local authorities and those employed by the county.

Since the health function was devolved, all health workers were put under county governments and their huge salary disparities are yet to be addressed.

But SRC's Deputy Director of Corporate Communications Ali Chege denied the assertions by Dr Muia, saying a task force to address the issue began its work last month.

He said the multi-agency task force has just completed collecting data on the salaries of all health workers from all the counties and will issue its recommendations soon.