Patients' agony as court declines to stop biting Nakuru doctors' strike

 

Efforts by Nakuru County government to force doctors to resume work failed after the court declined to outlaw the strike.

In an application through lawyer Harry Gakinya on Friday, the county government wanted the court to declare the strike illegal and order doctors to return to work.

However, Justice Stephen Radido of the Employment and Labour Relations Court declined to issue the conservatory orders. Instead, he directed the government to serve the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union with the application pending an inter-parties hearing Tuesday.

Noting it is a matter between life and death, the judge said he could not issue an injunction when it comes to issues of non-payment.

The doctors who have been on strike since September 16, had issued a notice on September 9 when they threatened to boycott work unless their demands were met.

They are demanding salaries and arrears from April 2016. The doctors’ union is also demanding promotion of their members.

However, the county government has termed demands by doctors as impractical and blamed the strike on union officials who it accuses of shifting goal posts during negotiations.

The county says the doctors who are demanding salaries from April are insincere because they had been working as interns until July when they were employed.

No obligation

The lawyer told the court that the county government had no obligation to pay for work not done.

In the application, Gakinya claimed the strike was premature, non-procedural and unreasonable.

He further argued the demand for car, loans and mortgages could not be resolved in seven days citing budgetary limitations.

The application filed under certificate of urgency further stated failure to exhaust mechanisms that can be used to resolve the dispute will see residents suffer unwarranted breach of their right to health services.

Gakinya said the doctors had been invited for negotiations on Thursday morning but failed to turn up.

He said the strike is unlawful and violates the Labour Relations Act. It is also contrary to good and proper industrial relations, he added.

However, the doctors, through lawyer Steve Biko, said they are shocked the county government expects them to deliver services without pay.

Just like any other human being, doctors have needs which ought to be met, Biko said.

“The court should not grant any orders stopping the strike as this has been undertaken by events. Doctors are already on strike, they had room for negotiation then but failed to utilise it,” said Biko.

He said if the court issued the orders, then the doctors were likely to lose out.