Nurses’ Union threaten to issue a 21-day nationwide strike notice.
By Dickson Odhiambo
November 17, 2018.
Nurses’ Union threaten to issue a 21-day
nationwide strike notice.
THE Nurses across
the country have threatened to issue 21-day nationwide strike notice to both
the National and County Governments over their alleged failure to implement a return
to work formula as part of a Collective Bargaining Agreement(CBA) entered
between them on November 2, 2017.
Through their
Union known as the Kenya National Union of Nurses{KNUN}, they will issue a nationwide strike on Monday next
week after the said failure.
Addressing the
press in Kisumu after a day long deliberations, the Kenya National Union of
Nurses Secretary General Seth Panyako said this is the position of the union as
directed by the National Advisory Council.
“The strike
notice is effective from November 19 this year if the return to work agreement
dated November 2, 2017 is not fully implemented respectively from July 1st
2018,” Panyako says.
The Union says
its members demand an annual increase of Sh 5000 on uniform allowance effective
of July 2018 and Sh 3000 increase on nursing allowance in the first year and sh
3500 in the two subsequent years as per the CBA agreed.
The Secretary
General says the nurses have also expressed their displeasure with the new job
evaluation by the SRC which they view as downgrading the nurses as semi-skilled
lower than all other professionals in the country.
“Nurses are fully
trained to undertake their roles and they are very much skilled hence the
Salary and Remuneration Commission should know this and not downgrade nurses as
semi-skilled people,” they say.
The secretary general
of the union urged the SRC to move with speed and come up with a proper grading
structure for the nurses across the country because they deserve better grading
since they deal with human life.
At the same time,
the Kenya National Union of Nurses have vowed to only offer its full support to
the National referendum which will have a Health Service Commission in it as a
body to deal with the issues of Health care within the Country.
They say anybody
who wants to come up with the issue of the National referendum to change the
current constitution must now think about the nurses and doctors by including
the issue of Health Service Commission to deal with their issues.
“Any kind of a
national referendum that does not support the issue of the Health Service Commission
will not receive any support from us as a union and this is our true position,”
they add
The union at the
same time has accused various county
governments for colluding with its former officials who allegedly defrauded the
union using various fraudulent accounts introduced in the Integrated Finance Management
Information System{IFMIS} hence crippling the union financially.
They now demand
freezing of all accounts and assets of the four members that were allegedly
involved in the transfer of the union’s funds to various illegal accounts owned
jointly for a period of 10 months.
They claim that
the DCI has concluded their investigation and have found the suspects should be
taken to court to answer charges, adding that such a file has been forwarded to
the Director of Public Prosecution without any action.
They want the
office of the DPP to move swiftly and order for the arrest of the suspects.
ENDS:
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