Acting Labor CS Raychelle Omamo. FILE PHOTO | HOEBE OKALL | NATION MEDAI GROUP
Nation Media Group
Acting Labour Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo will today meet
Trade Unions Congress of Kenya (TUC-Ke) officials in a bid to forestall a
planned strike over the new National Hospital Insurance Fund rates.
TUC-Ke
executive director Njeru Kanyamba told the Nation the union had
received an invitation to the meeting to discuss the matter.
“The
government has been playing hide-and-seek games with us since we issued
a seven-day strike notice on June 19, which expires tomorrow (Tuesday)
midnight. Therefore, this meeting is an opportune chance for her to
avert the strike,” he said.
On June 19, the union’s
General-Secretary Wilson Sossion wrote to Ms Omamo, accusing the
government of making a unilateral decision to levy new rates to the more
than 600,000 civil servants.
“The fund has continued
to deduct the new rates, regardless of protests and positions taken by
the union against lack of consultations preceding the said gazettement,”
says the letter in part.
TUC-Ke Deputy
General-Secretary Charles Mukhwaya called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to
intervene, to avert a public service strike.
Flanked
by the Dock Workers Union (DWU) General-Secretary Simon Sang and TUC-Ke
Chairman Tom Odege, Dr Mukhwaya warned last weekend that public services
would be paralysed if the matter is not resolved.
“It
President Kenyatta’s government ignores our pleas for dialogue, then it
will have itself to blame for what will happen,” he said.
Dr
Mukhwaya gave three demands the union wants addressed: revocation of
the Legal Gazette Notice of February 6; stoppage of further deductions
of the new NHIF rates and refund of the already deducted money.
He asked the about 5,000 DWU members to support TUC-Ke by withdrawing their labour.
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