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JKUAT warns of new strike after Uasu one

JKUA

A section of JKUAT Main Campus in Juja, Kiambu County. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Learning at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) could be disrupted further, even after the end of the national lecturers strike set to commence next week.

Members of the University Academic Staff Union (Uasu), JKUAT chapter, say this disruption would be over “pro-longed unresolved issues between them and the university management”.

Speaking at the university where they suspended a planned picketing to concentrate on the national lecturers strike, the chapter secretary general, Prof Peterson Hinga, said the university management had remained silent on their collapsed medical scheme and their local CBA.

Also, it has allegedly failed to remit funds to their pension scheme, to Fundilima Sacco and to their Uasu chapter, among others issues.

READ: Lecturers issue strike notice over pay talks

They said that discussions to resolve the remittances issue date back to 2016, with no action having been taken.

“The said funds have hit millions of shillings and no one has bothered to explain to the workers the reasons behind it. This is unacceptable and criminal, as per the Labour Act,” the union members wrote in a recent letter to the management.

According to the members, the university management is yet to remit over Sh900 million to their pension scheme. They further said that it is frustrating and demoralising for them to visit JKUAT Hospital only to be issued with prescriptions on what to buy and then being asked to wait for months for reimbursement of the amount paid.

The members also said the university had for the past six months deducted their union dues from their salaries but failed to remit the same to the union.