Lecturers in public universities have petitioned the government to implement their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that awarded them Sh 10 billion .
The lecturers insisted on the implementation of the 2013-2017 CBA signed between Kenya University Staff Union (Kusu), University Management Board and the Inter –Public Universities’ Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF).
They presented their petition yesterday as the strike entered its fifth day with dons giving the government a one-week ultimatum to implement the CBA to end the strike.
Addressing the striking lecturers outside Jogoo House offices, KUSU Secretary General Charles Mukkwaya pointed out that the workers last received a pay rise in 2010.
He stressed the need for the plight of university staff to be addressed immediately calling on the President to personally intervene on the matter.
“We are not interested in ‘good portions’ that the government claims, in a section of the media tomorrow (Thursday), to have released. All we want is a full deal,” he said.
According to the three unions representing public universities; Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (Kudheiha), Kusu and University Academic Staff Union (Uasu), the government had promised on February 2017 to seal the deal by June but has since gone mum on the matter.
“Ours is a legal strike as provided for in Article 37 of the constitution. We are demanding what is rightfully ours. The government has ignored our plight and we are not going to relent on the matter,” said Uasu chairman Muga K’Olale.
If the CBA is fully honoured, professors can expect their monthly salaries to increase from the current range of between Ksh. 384,000 and Sh. 576,000 to between Ksh. 1,152,000 and Sh. 1,800,000. Lower rank workers such as graduate assistants will expect a minimum salary of Ksh. 350,000.
Uasu and Kusu union officials say this 300 per cent increment will harmonise their salaries with other lecturers across the globe.
“We have done research across the world and realised we are the least paid. Even Dar-es-Salaam University next door pays more,” said Dr Constantine Wesonga, Uasu secretary general.
IPUCCF has however refuted the dons’ claims reiterating the government’s commitment on the matter. In a statement sent to newsrooms Professor Paul Kanyari, the council’s acting chair, said the government has already released Ksh 4.775 billion out of the 10 billion spelt out in the CBA.