Clinical officers vow to sustain strike in 15 counties over CBA

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Clinical officers have vowed to continue with their strike, which started on July 20, in counties that have not signed and implemented the Collective Bargaining Agreement(CBA).

They blamed the county governors of Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, Isiolo, Marsabit, Uasin Gishu, Lamu and Baringo for not signing the document, while others have, leading to the strike that is now in its 60th day. He said so far, 15 counties are still fully on strike.

“Our CBA has been in place for several years; we negotiated it for eight years. We agreed in December last year and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) approved the parameters that we negotiated. The signing was to happen on February 2 this year but some counties decided not to come for signing and we have been chasing those signatures all through,” said George Gibore, secretary general of Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO) during a press conference at their offices in Nairobi.

He added: “Under section 60 of the Labour Relations Act, sub-section 1 and 2, provide timelines for signing the CBA to 14 days, but if you look since February 2 till today, those are several months now that the employer has neglected to undertake the responsibilities despite having a return-to-work formula that clearly provided the timeline and therefore they are the reason why clinical officers are still on strike.”

Gibore said when they started the strike, only 11 had signed the CBA but now 38 have done so, despite implementation being another challenge.

He said once signed, the CBA will enhance risk allowance implementation for every clinical officer in every county.

Under the CBA also, he said there is a facilitation that is supposed to happen between the Ministry of Public Service’s department that runs payrolls to coding to accommodate the extra amount allocated to clinical officers but that has not been done.

“The Ministry has not done so and we are aware that Dr Jane Imbunya, Principal Secretary for the State Department for Public Service and Human Capital Development, has been adamant without communicating the reason why she has not been able to do that; we wonder why she is in office,” he said.

Also, he said the CBA is supposed to have allowances dating back to the 2021-2022 financial year, that have been approved by SRC but some counties, including Migori, Machakos, Makueni, Lamu, Marsabit, Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, Trans-Nzoia, Vihiga and Busia, have not paid despite some having court orders directing them to do so.

Gibore also said some counties have not transitioned contract-based UHC staff by issuing them letters of permanent and pensionable terms and Murang’a and Uasin Gishu counties have not done that.

Instead, he said they have issued directives to their members to undergo interviews, yet they are already permanent and pensionable employees as per their payslips.

“What is the sense of now introducing the interview, whatever they call it, suitability test? What is damning is that the situation we received yesterday that some of these officers are being asked for some money by Department of Health officers to get the letters is quite unfortunate and the height of corruption that has been existing in counties,” said Gibore.

On service gratuity, he said the Council of Governors (CoG) should have a proper agreement with the Ministry of Health because it is the one that is supposed to pay.

KUCO national chairman Peterson Wachira claimed that counties are making money out of the strike through locum engagement, thus pilfering taxpayers’ money.

“The reason the 15 counties are still on strike is that some people have found a way of making money through locum engagement to pilfer resources. And we are calling upon the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Auditor General to go and audit these counties...anytime we go on strike, it’s a stealing spree for them," said Wachira.

"Some of them, like Nairobi and Vihiga, we even got court orders that gave them timelines to implement it but because of their greed for money, they are now disenfranchising people as they watch them die and as they enjoy their loot."

Austine Oduor, KUCO deputy secretary general, said failure of counties to sign the CBA has caused some to employ clinical officers without using SRC guidelines, who end up being paid peanuts.