Dons pay rise on ice as SRC, varsities clash

Close to 27,000 staff in public universities will have to wait longer for pay raise following a standoff between the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) and their employers on the exact amount to be paid.

On Wednesday, public university vice-chancellors held a crisis meeting in Nairobi to take a position on the issue and appealed to their staff to give dialogue a chance.

Vice-chancellors Committee chairman Geoffrey Muluvi said the meeting that brought together vice-chancellors from 32 universities resolved to engage the SRC in solving the issue of how much should be paid to staff in the 2017-2021 collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

The CBA was signed in October last year and university staff had expected that the increase would be implemented immediately but standoff with SRC has stalled everything.

"We agreed to make a follow-up with SRC. We are yet to agree on the date but we have already written to the commission. We appeal to staff to remain patient as we resolve the matter," said Prof Muluvi, adding that the administrators are also engaging the Ministry of Education on the same.

In a letter to University Education PS Collete Suda dated January 3, Prof Muluvi said the dilemma that universities are experiencing is that the SRC generated the master's scale and increment schedules for the public universities to implement the CBA.

"It is noteworthy that the last computation of Sh13.8 billion, excluding the pension component was arrived at by universities after being guided by the SRC technical team on the mode of calculating the master's scales, increments and arrears for 2017-2021," added the chairman of the Vice-Chancellors Committee.

Prof Muluvi added that if the pension is included in the deal it will cost Sh16.2billion.

However, the SRC said Wednesday it was yet to receive any communication from vice-chancellors on planned meeting signalling that it may take longer for university staff to enjoy the pay raise.