Universities, dons in court Tuesday over pay dispute

The fate of pay rise for more than 30,000 staff in public universities will be determined Tuesday as union officials and the institutions’ administrators appear before the Labour court for registration of the deal.

The parties will appear before Justice Maurine Onyango for registration of the 2017-2021 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that was signed in October last year.

The implementation of the deal estimated to cost Sh8.8 billion was to start in November but flopped after the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) disputed the number of workers that had raised the total cost to Sh13.8billion.

Justice Onyango will register the deal if no party raises objections and Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) will thereafter be expected to issue a statement on the next cause of action.

The union had earlier warned that its members would go on strike unless the deal was implemented.

Two weeks ago, the lecturers shelved the strike to allow for the outcome of the court case as already the Inter-Public Universities Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) has defended the figure on staff establishment in the institutions.

“Let’s see what happens tomorrow (Tuesday). If things go well we will have peace in the sector, if not, we will decide what next,” said a senior Uasu official, adding lecturers are tired of government promises.

In a meeting with the lecturers last month, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha said the funds will be available in March or April after tabling of the supplementary budget.

Prof Magoha told the officials that Sh6.6 billion will be factored in this year’s supplementary budget and the remaining Sh2.2 billion will be factored in the 2020/2021 budget.

Prof Magoha told the union leaders that even though the government signed a deal with them, the money was not factored in this year’s budget.

Kenya Universities Staff Union (Kusu) which has 13,719 members is more focused on dialogue as opposed to strike.