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Ailing nation: UHC workers stage protest over lack of promotions, non-payment of gratuity

Theywant Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa to ensure their salaries are harmonised as per the circular issued by the Salaries Remuneration Commission)

Frustrated Universal Health Coverage (UHC) workers have vowed to continue with nationwide strike until their grievances are heard and solved.

The workers ,who today staged a protest and presented their petition at the ministry of Health headquarters at Afya House in Nairobi, lamented that they have stagnated at entry-level job group for the last five years as well as failure to employ them on permanent and pensionable terms.

They also complained of not been receiving their gratuity despite the government having gazetted the same at 31 per cent of their salary.

They now want Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa to ensure their salaries are harmonised as per the circular issued by the Salaries Remuneration Commission (SRC).

“We have been coming here for the last five years. We need Afya House to pay our gratuity which was gazetted and we are due for it since it is five years since we were employed. We need our salaries harmonised under SRC terms because what we are getting now is too little and people at Afya House know that they are abusing the labour laws. We are on strike and are not going back to work until they fulfill what they owe us,” Evelyne Kihara, a nurse employed under UHC explained.

“We have gone through a lot since our employment in 2020.There has been career stagnation because how can we be at the entry-level for over five years? We are here to tell the Health CS and the executive that we are not children of a lesser God; we are employees of this country,” she added.

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The health workers accuse the government of failing to adhere to the agreement signed under the Kericho Declaration like harmonising terms of employment for all workers.

They have declared that they will not return to work until the government meets their demands.

“We have been discriminated a lot and we are here to fight for our professional dignity. We shall not relent until our cry and demands are met.”

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