Editorials

EDITORIAL: Resolve lecturers’ pay row

uasu

Ultimatum Universities Academic Staff Union secretary-general Constantine Wasonga. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Industrial action, work boycott or strikes are uncontested methods workers use in the push for better employment conditions.

But the endless strike threats and strikes by lecturers at Kenya’s public universities are becoming an eyesore, if not shameful -- their legality notwithstanding.

It is disheartening that while the entire 2017 passed with a scratch on the surface for university teaching due to lecturers’ strikes, this year is also starting on a similar footing.

The dons announced on Wednesday that come March 1 they will stop working. Reason being that the government and university administrators have not given them a counter CBA offer expected on February 13.

The dons’ union says the government has been making a string on unmet promises on the 2017-21 collective bargaining argument (CBA).

MPs have noticed the game of musical chairs with a warning that the strikes have become a threat to the all-important sector.

And the writing is on the wall, partly with  massive failures at certain schools offering graduate training. No economy grows when lecturers and universities are ignored, demotivated, and are always fighting for what is basically basic pay.

These missteps and half-hearted treatment of university teachers is already reflecting in the quality of graduates.