Uasu signs Sh8.8b pay increase deal

Uasu Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga.

Representatives of university lecturers have accepted Sh8.8 billion pay deal.

The Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) yesterday signed the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), ending months of intense negotiations.

The Inter-Public Universities Council Consultative Forum (IPUCCF), an umbrella body for vice chancellors in public universities, offered Sh8.8 billion in total out of which Sh7 billion will cater for lecturers’ basic pay with the remaining Sh1.8 billion set aside for pensions under 2017/2021 CBA period.

This means the lecturers will enjoy backdated salaries to cover two years they missed out on the new pay adjustments.

Speaking during the CBA signing, Uasu Secretary General Constantine Wasonga said the union had accepted the offer, but asked the Government to suspend the implementation of Sessional Paper 1 of 2019 that proposed the funding of public universities under the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) module.

“As Uasu, we are very proud of the solidarity, commitment, discipline and firm resolve shown by our members during the long period of negotiations, conciliation, industrial action and court adjudication,” Wasonga said.

He said the union expects the CBA will be registered in court on November 20, 2019, as promised by IPUCCF.

The union called upon public universities to conclude all local university supplementary 2017-2021 CBAs by March 31, 2020.

Negotiations for 2021-2025 CBA will then commence immediately.

Preliminary data shows that under the proposed deal, professors who earn a minimum salary of Sh170,681 per month will have their pay increased to Sh209,693 at the end of the 2017/2021 CBA.

New salary

Associate professors who presently earn Sh112,038 will take home Sh144,450 in the final year of CBA.

Senior lecturers who earn Sh112,038 will have their salaries increased to a maximum of Sh144,450 for the next four years. Lecturers will get a pay rise of up to Sh4,919 per year.

Assistant lecturers/tutorial fellows will have their pay go up by Sh5,392.

Graduate assistants’ pay will also be increased annually by between Sh2,687 and Sh3,893.