Public servants threaten to go on strike over SRC job report

“SRC is practising labour dictatorship. It cannot be that we have over 200,000 members and we have no input in the report,” said Roba Duba, the general secretary of Kenya County Government Workers Union PHOTO: COURTESY.

Public servants have threatened to go on strike over the controversial job evaluation report.

Under the umbrella of the Association of Public Sector Unions of Kenya, through the National Co-ordinating Committee (NCC), the trade unions have described the report by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) as a complete sham with no agenda for the workers.

They accused the Sarah Serem-led commission of overstepping its mandate of providing ‘advice’ on remuneration.

“SRC is practising labour dictatorship. It cannot be that we have over 200,000 members and we have no input in the report,” said Roba Duba, the general secretary of Kenya County Government Workers Union.

The report covered 600,000 public servants and 36,000 State officers, with Serem saying all stakeholders were involved.

However, public servants union yesterday discredited the report, saying they were not consulted by SRC.

In a joint statement that was released by Ernest Nadome of the Kenya Electrical Trades and Allied Workers Union, who is also the chair of NCC, the union heads backed the 21-day strike notice issued by their affiliates Kenya National Union of Nurses (Knun) and Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU).

The two unions had earlier dismissed the report by SRC, saying the Government duped them.

 LEGITIMATE DEMANDS

“Time to call a strike in the entire public sector is now. We fully and strongly support the legitimate demands of the workers in the health sector, both at the county and national government level,” said Nadome at a press briefing yesterday.

Other unions that attended the briefing in solidarity are Kenya University Staff Union and Knun among others.

KMPDU argued that the report ignored its 300 per cent salary increment demand, with the same grievance being shared with Knun that is demanding a 40 per cent pay increase.

The SRC report only gave proposed salary structure through job groups.

According to Serem, the report is meant to harmonise pay in the public sector by pegging salaries to performance hence reducing the huge salary disparity between the highest and lowest paid worker.

The report followed a directive from President Uhuru Kenyatta in his quest to manage the bloated public service wage bill.

Nadome said since 2013, SRC has continued to overstep its  mandate of setting and reviewing remuneration for State officers and offering advice to State organs.

He further lashed out at the Kenya National Union of Teachers and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers, saying they should not use their influence to make other public servants accept the report.