Union of Kenya Civil Servants secretary-general Tom Odege (second left)
leads other union officials in singing a song during a past Press
conference in Nairobi. FILE
By NEVILLE OTUKI
Lecturers have given the government up to the
end of the week to avert a strike that could throw the congested public
universities calendar into disarray after government officials snubbed a
crucial meeting on Monday.
University officials expressed dismay at being
forced to wait for representatives from the Ministry of Education for
most of Monday afternoon, but who never showed up.
“We waited for government officials since 2 pm as
we had agreed only for them to snub us. We have now decided to meet on
Friday together with the governing council to settle on a date for the
strike,” Kenya Universities Staff Union (Kusu) Secretary- General
Charles Mukhwaya said by phone.
But he assured that the union was willing to engage in talks before Friday.
Kusu and Uasu on Sunday threatened to call for
industrial action should their pay and house allowance not be raised as
signed in a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in 2012.
In the CBA, the dons were to be paid Sh7.8 billion in two equal tranches. They now claim that only Sh3.9 billion was paid.
The meeting had been set for the ministry’s Jogoo
House offices after phone consultations between the union and Education
Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang on Sunday. It was meant to establish a
common ground on the pay dispute.
The Inter-Public University Council Consultative
Union, which lecturers have accused of failing to implement a pay deal
agreed upon in 2012, also gave the meeting a wide berth.
It was expected to table five reports on the matter.
Only Kusu and Universities Academic Staff union (Uasu) were present at the planned venue.
Kusu, which represents all professional workers in
public universities including lecturers, said it had been left with
little choice other than to call for a strike.
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