Kenya’s health sector may yet again be hit with another labour crisis as clinical officers have threatened to go on strike following collapsed CBA negotiations.
Kenya Union of Clinical Officers secretary general George Gibore said the talks initiated in December 2017 collapsed in April last year.
He said the government has been unwilling to return to the negotiation table despite several interventions.
“Guided by the Labour Relations Act 2017, the union wrote to the Labour CS who appointed a conciliator but the government’s side refused to honour summons leading to failure of conciliation,” Gibore said.
He spoke on Saturday at a hotel in Nakuru.
The Ministry of Health, the Council of Governors and the Labour ministry are the parties to the pay talks.
Gobore said 90 per cent of the issues at hand had been agreed upon by the time the government walked out in April.
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He said KUCO sought intervention from the Senate and the National Assembly health committees but the efforts hit a dead end as "the Council of governors refused to cooperate".
“We have done several petitions to both employers with the latest dated January 28 imploring on the them to reconstitute the negotiations but it’s now clear that they are unwilling,” he said.
“We have exhausted all the alternative dispute resolution mechanisms as provided for in the law and are now left with the single option of a strike.”
Gibore said the decision on when the strike will be called will be made next Saturday after an advisory council meeting.
Clinical officers are demanding risk and call allowances be raised from Sh3,000 and Sh10,000 to Sh30,000 and Sh70,000.
They also want health workers’ allowances increased from Sh20,000 to Sh30,000.
The clinicians are asking the government to employ an additional 4,700 officers and put in place a revamped comprehensive medical cover.
"We want the government to start paying our interns. The last time they were paid is 1997. They do a lot of work and mostly for long hours," said Gibore.
The union also wants the government to allow those who want to advance their training to do so without any delay.
"The counties need to do an assessment and prioritise the of training for the clinical officers. We have less clinical officers who have specialised training like ontology, mental health and reproductive among other areas," Gibore said.
The union's officials will hold an advisory council meeting in Nairobi on February 16 to advise on the course of action.
The strike threat comes as county governments are still grappling with the challenging task of pacifying the nurses’ strike called last week.
Nurses in 23 counties went on strike on January 4 demanding the implementation of the 2017 return-to-work formula.
It awarded them better pay and uniform and service allowances.
KNUN secretary general Seth Panyako said only Machakos, Mombasa and Migori have fully implemented the October 2017 CBA.
On Tuesday, the court suspended the nurses' strike for 60 days to give room for negotiations with governors.
The health officers were to go on strike in December last year but halted it to pave way for negotiations which they say failed to bear fruits.
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