Health care in the country might be disrupted in seven days after unions threatened to call their members on strike over disparities in risk allowance.
They want the allowances harmonised, saying some workers get Sh20,000 and others Sh3,000.
The unions are Kenya National Union of Nurses, Kenya Union of Clinical Officers, Kenya National Union of Medical Laboratory Officers, Kenya Health Professionals Society and the Kenya National Union of Pharmaceuticals Technologists.
“It is the feeling of the health workers that the awarding of this particular allowance did not consider the factors that inform who is at the highest risk in the line of health care provision,” KUCO chairman Peterson Wachira said.
He said the determination of exposure to risk should take into consideration time, work environment and, most importantly, knowledge of the risk.
“The current pandemic puts every health worker at risk, with the greatest risk to frontline health workers who always get infected and have the highest number of infection among health professionals yet they are the least considered and lowly paid,” Wachira said.
The unions want frontline workers to be paid Sh30,000, which is "commensurate with the risk".
They complained that most health workers were having challenges with transport, with cases reported of police harassment and arrests on their way home from duty.
They want the government to either provide a commuter allowance or vehicles to take them home.
The government should provide accommodation for those working in high-risk facilities such as isolation and quarantine areas and high-risk counties, they say.
“It is unfortunate counties are employing clinical officers on casual contracts with a gross salary as low as Sh30,000, which is exploitative and demotivating to our members,” Wachira said.
The workers want all short-term contracts remunerated as permanent and pensionable, and those on long-term contracts admitted to the permanent and pensionable category.
They want the employment of additional health workers fast-tracked to ease pressure on existing staff.
The unions said their leadership had been left out of planning for Covid-19 mitigation, making them unaware of plans by the government to protect and motivate their members.
They said it was unfair for them to be left out when their working conditions were being discussed.
Edited by Henry Makori
