County governments have agreed to pay withheld salaries and other allowances to nurses for the two months they have been on strike even as they called on them to call off the strike.
At a meeting between the County Governments’ Negotiating Team and the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) the former asked KNUN to suspend the strike for 60 days in order to give room for further negotiations.
Consequently the county government also agreed that no nurse will be victimized adding that no displinary action will be taken against the nurses who are on strike.
The move by the county government comes after the governors threatened to take administrative and legal action against striking nurses who were on strike as their strike is “unprotected”.
In a letter that was addressed to the KNUN officials, the county leaders said the association did not adhere to the recognition agreement, the KNUN constitution and the labour relations law when it called for the industrial action.
“During the meeting today, the County Governments offered to; Withdraw any disciplinary action that may have been taken against the nurses and agreed that no party shall be victimized as well as Pay withheld salaries and other allowances to nurses for the period they have been on strike,” the Chairman of County Governments Negotiation Team Joseph Tanui said.
The two teams, who met to initiate talks over the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), also jointly with the union agreed to initiate the appeal on job evaluation and grading of nurses to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
The nurses’ strike has been ongoing since June when the nurses expressed their disappointments for non-implementation of their CBA that was agreed by both the National and County Governments and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.