Talks aimed at averting a nationwide work boycott by university professors and non-teaching staff have collapsed, paving the way for a strike to begin at midnight.
The strike was called by the University Academic Staff Union and the Kenya Universities Staff Union. It comes just a week after students called off their strike following government intervention. Students are unhappy with the new higher education funding model.
Owaso and Koso issued the notice on September 11.
Two days later, Education Minister Julius Ogamba called the unions to a meeting on September 16.
“We could not do everything the prime minister and his team asked us to do. It is not possible to continue earning the same income in an environment where everything has gone up and our purchasing power has been eroded,” said Charles Mokwaya, secretary general of the COSO union.
Fellow Osa University Students’ Union member Constantine Wasonga said lecturers were prepared for a long-term boycott.
“We don’t eat promises or paper money. We don’t care if it takes years. If they come with promises, we will reject them. We want something tangible,” he said.
Dr Wasonga added that he was contacted by the Minister of State for Labour Party Affairs, Alfred Mutua, after the meeting with Mr Ogamba.
“I told him we would meet after we started the strike but we would give him a chance to meet,” he added.
The national strike by Koso and Waso officials at the Technical University of Kenya will be launched at 10am today.
Kenya has 35 public universities and three university colleges. Unions said they would hold a “massive demonstration” in Nairobi on Monday.
The meeting at Jojo House was attended by Principal Secretary for Higher Education Beatrice Inyangala, national officials from the two unions, Chairman of the Public Universities Vice Chancellors Committee Daniel Mugende and Chairman of the Public Universities Councils Consultation Forum Peter Barasa.
“The government side wanted us to call off the strike to allow them to address our issues but we can’t do that because they have all the time. We can only do that if they agree to sign a collective agreement by midnight,” said a source who attended the meeting but was not authorised to speak to the press.
The core of the dispute lies in the proposed collective settlement agreement for the period 2021/2025.
The lecturers waited three years to negotiate the deal as there has been no progress since they submitted their proposal on September 4, 2020.
“There was no counter proposal until 2023. Even that was a worthless offer. They have now said no more waiting. We have told the Cabinet Secretary that if they cannot give our members a salary increase, they should protect them at the minimum,” Dr Mukhawaya said.
During the meeting with Mr. Ogamba, union officials demanded that their members’ demands for a minimum of seven to ten percent increase in the basic salaries received by other government employees last year be considered.
According to the unions, workers in lower job grades will receive a higher percentage, while those in higher grades will receive a lower percentage.
Mr. Ogamba offered to “consult with other relevant government departments.”
He proposed a 3.5 percent increase among cadres.
“History shows that no collective agreement has been fulfilled without a strike. We will have to go on three strikes; to negotiate the collective agreement, to register it in court, and another strike to implement it. We are ready for all three strikes,” said Onesmus Mutio, the organising secretary of the Owaso Workers Union.
In the 2020 proposal, the teachers union demanded an increase in the monthly basic pay to Sh99,650 for the lowest paid lecturer (postgraduate assistant or teaching fellow) and Sh338,146 for the highest paid professor.
The collective labour agreement was scheduled to come into effect in 2021 if the two parties had reached an agreement.
The basic salary of the lowest lecturer is Sh57,729 while the highest earns Sh209,694, excluding allowances.