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KMTC staff on strike over pay


Operations in all Kenya Medical Training Colleges have been paralyzed since Tuesday after their workers union called for a nationwide strike.

The Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA) had bargained for a 12 percent annual increase on basic salary and allowances in a Collective Bargain Agreement that is yet to be implemented.

On Thursday when Nairobi News visited the Nairobi campus, students were outside the classes studying on their own, administration offices closed as workers sat outside.

The Chief Shop steward of the union Alice Njoki told Nairobi News that the workers have been given empty promises and resulted to issuing a strike notice.

“Like today when we were coming, they told us that there is a committal letter from treasury to show that our money will be paid by end of this month, but after going into the meeting with the management the letter was not there so the union decided that the strike will continue till our money is paid,” she said.

The Deputy Chief Shop steward Moses Tetei said that the union has been engaging the employer in talks since the ruling was made but nothing has come forth.

NATIONWIDE STRIKE

About 2,000 workers countrywide are set to benefit from the CBA while the employer is set to pay up arrears from October 2012 amounting to Sh720 million.

Documents seen by Nairobi News showed that the industrial court under Lady Justice Maureen Onyango on November 24, 2014 ruled that the employer implements the CBA within 30 days failure to which the union will be at liberty to enforce the same by any lawful means available.

“For the foregoing reasons I declare the Collective Agreement between the claimant and the respondent in court on 22nd October 2012 as RCA No. 226 of 2012 to be valid and having already been incorporated in the contracts of the employees who are subject thereto.”

The workers will launch the nationwide strike Friday in the presence of the Kudheiha Deputy Secretary General and have vowed not to resume work until the agreement is honored and their dues paid up by their employer.

About 41 campuses of the medical college are expected to be affected by the strike whose effects are already being felt in Nairobi and Nakuru branches where students have not been taught since Tuesday.

Students from Garissa KMTC demanded for transfers to other campuses and some have already left the campus following the terrorist attack at Garissa University that left 148 people dead and several others injured.