KNH services grind to a halt as 5,000 workers strike
What you need to know:
- Families were forced to pick up their relatives from the Nairobi facility due to lack of services as unions commenced the strike.
- The workers are demanding implementation of resolutions from the State Corporation Advisory Committee that was passed in 2012, which upgraded the hospital’s parastatal status from 3C to 7A.
Services at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) ground to a halt on Monday after about 5,000 workers went on strike over delayed disbursement of improved salaries and allowances, which total Sh601 million.
Families were forced to pick up their relatives from the Nairobi facility due to lack of services as unions began the strike.
They are the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions and Hospital Workers (Kudheiha), the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) and the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU).
The workers are demanding implementation of resolutions from the State Corporation Advisory Committee that were passed in 2012, which upgraded the hospital’s parastatal status from 3C to 7A.
Following re-categorisation of the facility, all staff working at KNH were supposed to get enhanced pay but this did not happen, causing some of them to strike late last year.
SRC’s position
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) said the formula is not a basis for demanding a pay review as it is not fiscally sustainable and will cause distortions in the sector’s salary structure.
The SRC wants the KNH to retain the current remuneration structure as it awaits job evaluation for the remuneration review cycle of financial years 2021/22 to 2014/25.
KNUN Secretary-General Seth Panyako said, however, that they are not interested in the job evaluation and want their salaries adjusted as Parliament gave its approval.
“We want the SRC to write to the CEO, giving authorisation for payment, because we know the money is there. We will not go back to work until we get the money,” he said.
KMPDU’s acting Secretary-General, Chibanzi Mwachonda, said the SRC is the only obstacle and is frustrating health workers in the public sector.
KNH's promise
The hospital’s CEO, in a letter to the SRC on Monday, said KNH will put in place mechanisms to ensure payment of the Sh601 million budgeted for the 2020/21 financial year in the October payroll.
In a letter dated February 12, 2013, to then Finance Principal Secretary, KNH detailed the breakdown of the salaries from the CEO to the lowest Job Group K16/17.
The lowest basic salary for the hospital CEO was set at Sh400,000 while the maximum was capped at Sh560,000. The house allowance was to be between Sh60,000 and Sh80,000.
While the CEO’s basic salary was settled at Sh400,000, that of the lowest worker was set at Sh17,535.
