Nurses issue fresh demand to county governments

The nurses’ union has issued a fresh demand to county governments.

Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) on Thursday blamed county governments for delayed payments of its workers.

KNUN accused the governments of not honouring the return to work formula and Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed in November, 2017. The union demanded the arrears to be paid immediately.

“As a consequence of the above, the union now issues a notice to the offending employers to pay all the nurses the outstanding dues immediately and in any case not later by close of business today.

“We also direct all our members through their branch officials who are owed money by the concerned county governments, to prepare and have daily salary parades at their respective governors’ offices daily with immediate effect from January 11, 2018, until all outstanding money is paid,” said Seth Panyako, KNUN Secretary General.

The Council of Governors, Ministry of Health and KNUN in November last year signed a CBA that ended a five-month-long nurses’ strike.

Nurses agreed to resume work on November 3 while the Government promised to remit withheld salaries by November 30.

KNUN blamed the CoG for the 151-day stalemate saying they diverted attention to the leadership of the union rather than focusing on issues raised by medics.

The Government had threatened to sack striking nurses claiming the impasse was not lawful.

"The nurses' strike is illegal. It is notable that the nurses went on strike while the negotiations on their CBA were taking place. This was an act of bad faith," said CoG Chairman Josphat Nanok.

The strike kicked off at the wrong time when the country was in a political campaign mode.

In fact, street demonstrations by nurses across the country hardly made it to the top of news bulletins.

All disciplinary action against the striking nurses were suspended forthwith and a return to work formula was set in motion.