Lecturers dig in as pay strike enters day 41

University students will wait longer before they can continue with their studies after striking lecturers defied court orders to resume work and protested the handling of their strike by the government.

The unionists of the University Academic Staff Union (Uasu) and the Kenya University Staff Union (Kusu) yesterday turned the heat on their employer, the Inter Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF), accusing it of lacking goodwill to table a counter Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Lecturers who are on the 41st day of the work boycott are pushing for the negotiation, signing and registration of the 2017-2021 CBA which is estimated to cost Sh38 billion.

IPUCCF chairperson Paul Kanyari had asked the management of public universities to take stern action on staff who do not report to work on Monday as directed by the Employment and Labour Relations Court last Friday.

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Stay put

But Uasu Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga and his Kusu counterpart Charles Mukhwaya asked their members to stay put until the government tables a pay offer as directed by court.

University chapter leaders of the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (Kudheiha) however complied with the court orders and Secretary General Albert Njeru called off the strike.

Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed said the ministry is committed to dealing with the matter, adding that the dispute between the lecturers, university staff and universities on the 2017-2021 CBA is already before the Ministry of Labour where it will be dealt with conclusively.

“The ministry supports the court and the IPUCCF directives and therefore learning should have resumed today,” said the CS in Nairobi.