University staff strike threat looms even after court order

The fate of a strike called for Wednesday by 22,000 university staff hangs in the balance after their employer obtained a court order stopping the action.

The Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) said it had obtained a court injunction stopping the strike.

“Consequently, parties have been ordered to appear before Lady Justice Monica Mbaru at the Industrial Court on 12th March, 2014 at 10 a.m,” FKE said in a statement.

FKE said the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) was seeking orders to compel the parties to agree to have discussions and arrive at a negotiated agreement.

Union officials could not be reached for comment on whether they had been served with the orders and on whether they would call off the strike.

The lecturers and other workers had vowed to go on strike Wednesday over delayed salary and house allowances amounting to Sh3.9 billion after they rejected an offer of Sh2.2 billion from vice-chancellors and college principals.

“The strike is on. Our members will down their tools from tomorrow (Wednesday),” Kenya Universities Staff Union (Kusu) secretary-general Charles Mukhwaya said.

Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi had earlier admitted frustration in failing to broker a deal that would have ensured learning continues in the institutions.

“There was little I could do. Each side came to the meeting having already taken a hardline position,” Prof Kaimenyi told the Business Daily after the meeting.

He said the dispute would be better handled by the Industrial Court, which witnessed the Collective bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the workers and the institutions in 2012.

READ: How varsities diverted Sh7.8 billion prompting strike threat

In Tuesday’s meeting, university administrators had offered Sh2.2 billion on top of the Sh3.9 billion that the workers were paid in 2012.

The offer was Sh1.7 billion short of the balance being demanded by the unions to complete the Sh7.8 billion awarded to unionsable staff in the 2011-2014 CBA.

Although the entire amount was released by the government, the workers say they were paid only half the amount and the rest paid to the administrators or used to plug funding deficits facing the institutions.

“We would be doing our members disservice if we took up an offer that is less than what they are entitled to,” Mr Mukhwaya said.

Agreement

Kusu represents 12,000 non-teaching professionals while the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) represents 10,000 lecturers.

The unions said that the government’s offer would marginally push up members’ pay to only 22 per cent and housing allowance to 11 per cent, way below what was agreed in the covenant.

Last month, university heads from 31 institutions accepted they had awarded themselves unspecified amounts, over and above their share in the pay pact. They also disclosed they were holding Sh1.3 billion in surplus after effecting pay hikes for lecturers and university employees.

Through the Inter-Public Universities Council Consultative Forum (IPUCCF), they signed a CBA on behalf of workers two years ago.

In 2012, lecturers and other staff downed their tools to push for pay increases, which culminated in the signing of a Sh7.8 billion Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the government.

The terms of the document stated that salaries of lecturers and non-teaching staff would be increased by 33 per cent and 14 per cent for housing allowance. The award came in two equal tranches of Sh3.9 billion with the first to be paid in 2012 and the other last year.

The workers say the second instalment was not paid, leaving staff with only a 17 per cent increase in salaries and seven per cent increase in house allowances.