Why public sector strikes recur

The doctors' strike has ended. It is a good conjuncture to discuss the big issues around frequent strikes in the public sector and how to prevent them in essential services.

The big problem is that the government is acting as if it was not aware that labour, like other factors of production — land, labour and capital— is priced according to that principle in economics known as scarcity.

We read in economics textbooks that labour, like any factor of production, is priced according to the dictates of supply and demand and that the number of years a worker spends in school and in training must be factored when determining wages and emoluments.

If we accept that the skills are scarce and concede that it takes close to 10 years to train as a doctor, is it not the height of irony that Kenya pays doctors less than what members of county assemblies (MCAs) earn?

It seems that as long as the salaries and emoluments of doctors are allowed to stagnate and remain at a level where they do not reflect scarcity and the number of years it takes to train, we must brace for more strikes.

My second point. Who is the legal employer of doctors and which institution should take the lead in determining the salaries of doctors?

Is it the Public Service Commission (PSC)? How about doctors who are employees of semi-autonomous government agencies like the University of Nairobi and the Kenyatta National Hospital? Should the Office of the President-based State Advisory Committee (SCAC) get involved?

Should the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) be involved in negotiations of salaries of doctors?

The mistake the framers of the Constitution made was to assume that it was possible to separate the critical roles of hiring employees from the responsibilities of setting terms of service and job evaluation.

Legally, doctors are employees of the PSC. Why should we allow the SRC to come between an employee and his employer?

The responsibility of determining wages and terms of service of doctors should be left to the PSC.

There is a need to debate and rethink the SRC's role and place in negotiating collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) with public sector unions.

I say so because one unintended consequence of the creation of the SRC has been an upsurge in disputes and industrial unrest in the public sector. It has expanded its mandate beyond what it was meant to do.

Indeed, many industrial disputes have arisen just because the SRC insisted on having a say in negotiations of CBAs with civil servants.

For instance, a dispute arose in April 2014, when the former chairman of the SRC Sarah Serem put out a letter to principal secretaries directing that all CBAs be handed to her office before signing.

To unions, the SRC is but a meddler always forcing its way in negotiations between the employer and workers.

Indeed, there have been several instances when unions took the SRC to court, accusing it of usurping the role of the Public Service Commission.

War with SRC

The Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers which mostly represents non-academic staff of public universities filed a petition in court protesting meddling by the SRC in negotiations with their employer.

Other unions that had big tiffs with the salaries commission include the Kenya National Union of Nurses, the Doctors Union, and the Kenya National Union of Teachers.

Clearly, the SRC has not served to promote industrial peace in the public sector.

We had reached a point where the SRC was even seeking to meddle in the setting of employment terms and conditions to employees of autonomous commercial State corporations, some of them listed entities competing for talent with the private sector and, therefore, have to pay market rate salaries.

My last point. Let’s bring back the idea of the proposed Health Services Commission on the agenda. We can then debate whether the existence of multiple splinter and craft unions is good for industrial peace in this sector.

Nurses, clinical officers and lab technicians belong to separate unions. It is difficult for an employer to negotiate with too many parties.

The writer is a former managing editor of The EastAfrican.