Varsity lecturers resume strike, accuse State of ignoring them

According to UASU Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga, the strike resumed after failed attempts to reach an agreement with the government. Learning in all public universities across the country has been paralysed after lecturers downed their tools yesterday. The University Academic Staff Union (UASU) declared that the strike would go on until the government heeds their demands as stipulated in the 2012-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). On Tuesday, UASU Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga called on the government to honour the negotiated return-to-work formula, which had numerous benefits aimed at catering to their welfare. This is the second strike by the dons in under two months after the previous one that was suspended on September 26. According to Dr Wasonga, the strike resumed after failed attempts to reach an agreement with the government. UASU was set to meet Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba for talks after a team set up to negotiate on behalf of the government with the lecturers failed to reach a middle ground. However, the meeting with Ogamba did not materialise. "I want to tell UASU members wherever they are to down their tools because the government has failed to listen to us," Wasonga said yesterday. Wasonga was accompanied by several union officials, including Mary Goretty, the Technical University of Kenya UASU chapter secretary. In a letter to the councils of 35 public universities and three constituent university colleges, Wasonga had announced the strike notice would take effect from October 22, 2024. He faulted the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum for failing to negotiate and finalise CBAs for the periods 2013-2017, 2017-2021 and 2021-2025. "We met the inter-ministerial committee today. We have disagreed on the implementation of the return-to-work formula signed on September 26. Whereas the unions want the formula implemented as was signed and simulated by the technical committee, the government introduced a figure of Sh4.3 billion that is not on the formula to cover two years. Therefore, I have formally issued a seven-day strike notice," Wasonga said. Among their demands, the lecturers are pushing for an automated annual pay increment of four per cent, as agreed upon in the CBA. "We did not fail in terms of expressing good faith because we suspended our strike initially to listen to the government. It seems they are not honest," Wasonga noted. "If you have given a member seven per cent, it will show. We are not dealing with illiterate people who don't know how to calculate seven and four percent, so you cannot cheat them. You want UASU officials to be part of that manipulation. We will not do that," he said. Wasonga disclosed that they had been engaging the government in a bid to sign a return-to-work formula, with the last attempt to reach an agreement failing during the September 26 meeting. The strike comes despite recent government efforts to convince the lecturers to return to work, with a promise to advance negotiations to a ministerial level. On September 25, Cabinet Secretary for Labour, Alfred Mutua, announced that he had escalated the negotiations to include representatives from the ministries of Labour, Education, and Treasury to help both sides reach a resolution. The unions, including UASU and the Kenya Universities Staff Union, have faulted the government, accusing it of negligence despite previous promises to fulfill their demands. Union officials urged the government to avoid threatening them with potential sackings. "Don't scare us with sacking. We can teach anywhere in the world," said Wasonga.

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