No end in sight for lecturers’ strike as Treasury digs in

Treasury secretary Henry Rotich when he appeared before the National Assembly’s Education committee yesterday. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE 

In Summary

• The hardline stance from the Treasury looks set to delay pay talks to end the nationwide strike that has disrupted learning for the past 21 days.
• The lecturers, who resumed the strike on March 1 over low pay, nearly three months after ending a similar protest, are insisting on a counter offer before resuming talks.
• Mr Rotich now want lecturers and universities to work on a return-to-work formula and allow time for talks which he said may take two to three months.

By OUMA WANZALA
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The ongoing lecturers strike may take longer to be resolved after the Treasury said yesterday that a counter offer will only come after job evaluation has been done.

Treasury secretary Henry Rotich told the National Assembly’s Education committee that a court case by lecturers stopping the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) from concluding the job evaluation had made it hard for the government to determine what to give them.

The hardline stance from the Treasury looks set to delay pay talks to end the nationwide strike that has disrupted learning for the past 21 days.

The lecturers, who resumed the strike on March 1 over low pay, nearly three months after ending a similar protest, are insisting on a counter offer before resuming talks.

“As for now we have no control over Court process and also the constitution of SRC commissioner who are supposed to approve the job evaluation report will take time,” said Mr Rotich.

Mr Rotich told the committee that the job evaluation was aimed at determining the worth of jobs in the public service in a bid to curb the ballooning wage bill.

University lecturers in August blocked through court the implementation of the new job grading system because it ranked administrators with less education above them in the pay scale.

Under the new grading system, degree-holder administrators such as the university librarian and finance officers were to earn more than senior lecturers with PhD qualifications.

Mr Rotich now want lecturers and universities to work on a return-to-work formula and allow time for talks which he said may take two to three months.

The lectures want Sh38 billion for a pay agreement covering the four years starting July 2017 to 2021.

They are also demanding services available to other public servants like car loans and higher quality medical insurance.

Mr Rotich said a staff audit must be done at the universities to establish the employee numbers amid suspicion of ghost workers. This is also tied to a financial audit to determine how universities spend funds from the Treasury and internal sources like students fees.

“Universities’ Vice-Chancellors who are chief executive officers have been very economical with data especially when it comes to revenues generated from self-sponsored students,”  said Mr Rotich.

“In total, an amount of Sh15,266 billion has already been disbursed to the Ministry of Education  for onward disbursement to the various universities to cater for the 2013-2017 CBAs.”