Busia board convenes crisis meeting over health workers strike

The Busia Public Service Board will meet on Tuesday to deliberate on the health workers' strike.

Governor Sospeter Ojaamong said the meeting will begin the process of sacking and replacing striking workers. He had said the county will not tolerate defiance from workers whose industrial action has led to the suffering of residents in need of healthcare.

Health workers went on strike on December 7. They demand, among other things, the provision of personal protective equipment as they battle the Covid-19 pandemic.

They also want the families of their colleagues who die of Covid-19 compensated, and their allowances increased.

The Ojaamong administration says it is ready to employ workers who are willing to serve. Only those who would have reported by Monday this week will be spared, he said.

The scheduled meeting was convened after the striking health practitioners declined to return to work as ordered by the county.

“I have given striking nurses up to Monday, January 18, 2021, to return to work. It will be the last one for the health workers. The County Public Service Board should convene a meeting to advertise positions of medics who would have failed to report on duty by Monday,” Ojaamong said.

He made the remarks on Thursday after meeting a section of health workers. He said nurses who attended the meeting informed health officials that they had received threats from their union representatives against resuming duty.

“Nurses who honoured the meeting I convened cited threats from union officials as the main reason that saw them not report on duty,” he said.

“I disagree with this hypothesis since they didn't report the matter to relevant arms of the law. I promise to talk to the security apparatus to avail security to various public health institutions.

“This is a candid amnesty I am giving you. I know most of you have families and obligations to meet, bear in mind that I, too, have a human heart but it has now reached a dead end.”

But in response, Kenya National Union of Nurses county secretary general Isaiah Omondi said the pronouncement to sack striking health workers has no legal basis and will not succeed.

“Let the county employ other health workers to add the numbers. The casuals who work in hospitals have not been paid for one year. So how will they pay the new doctors and nurses? The county does not have any money to pay new employees. Let them first pay those on duty,” Omondi said.

“If they want to fire workers, let them begin by firing those casuals they have not paid for one year.”

Omondi said their strike is legal as they gave the county notice before they went they stayed away from work. He said they have the right to strike for their grievances to be addressed.

Ojaamong should have gone to court to seek an order telling workers to return to work other than making what he described political threats, he said.

“If he gets a court order and they refuse to go to work, he can then instruct the board to go and advertise the positions and then the board will employ new workers. But ask yourself why did the workers go on strike? We went on strike because the work environment is not favourable,” Omondi said on the phone.

“You cannot just get up in the morning and start sacking workers without legal backing because first, the governor is not the employer. This is a protected strike. Anyone who tries to end the strike with feelings and emotions will end up in trouble.”

The unionist said the county should address the issues the health workers wanted to be solved at the time they downed their tools.

“Let the governor not deal with this strike with emotions because emotions come and go. If the county employs more workers, they will still be members of the Kenya National Union of Nurses and if they have issued with the employer, they will still go on strike,” he said.

Ojaamong said all the nurses who attended Thursday’s meeting will be paid their January’s salary in February. The same will apply to clinical officers who attended the meeting he had with them on Friday.