• The unions said they have given the government 21 days to come to the table failure to which they will go ahead with their strike.
•The health unions had issued a two weeks strike notice to the government which lapsed on Sunday.
Healthcare workers have suspended their strike, which was set to start on Monday to give dialogue a chance.
In a joint statement on Sunday, the unions said they have given the government 21 days to dialogue, failure to which they will go ahead with their strike.
The workers had issued a two weeks strike notice to the government which lapsed on Sunday.
Already, the Kenya National Union of Nurses secretary general Seth Panyako has written to branch officials informing them of the cancellation of the strike.
The workers are decrying failure by the government to harmonise risk allowances meant for frontline health workers.
“The government reached out on Friday and the next meeting will be today (Monday). We will have a meeting with the Labour CS, Health CS and the Council of Governors chairman,” Kenya Union of Clinical Officer's chairman Peterson Wachira said on Sunday.
Health unions have rejected the Sh3 billion offer by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, which was approved to pay frontline health workers.
Panyako termed the approval as myopic as it did not address the President's directive that the money be used to pay frontline health workers.
“The President was very categorical. He said frontline health workers. Is a health worker sitting in Afya House frontline in relation to Covid-19? The answer is no. Once you key in that money, it will go to all doctors whether you are at home as a dentist, as a pharmacist in the name of doctors,” he said.
According to a letter from Labour CS Simon Chelugui seen by the Star, the meeting will take place at NSSF building and will lay the ground for further engagement by the partners on the disputed issues to avert the strike.
“By copy of this letter, the health workers are invited to attend the meeting. Not more than four representatives in line with the Covid-19 [directives],” the letter reads in part.
Meanwhile, Treasury CS Ukur Yatani has directed counties to reorganise their budgets and provide for the Covid-19 medical emergency allowance for their staff subject to approval by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
The payment for the county governments’ health workers is estimated to cost Sh2.356 billion.
According to Yatani, the provision of medical cover for 15,000 health care workers in 22 county governments not currently covered in any other medical scheme is estimated to cost Sh500 million.
The SRC on April 28 approved the implementation for the allowances and other benefits for a period of three months with effect from April 1 estimated at Sh3.432 billion.
According to Yatani, the World Bank has provided Sh6.35 billion to the ministry for Covid-19 disease surveillance, care, treatment, purchase of PPEs for health workers for national and county facilities.
An additional Sh3 billion was provided to the ministry through the supplementary estimates in the 2019-20 financial year.
The CS said the allocations should be used to cater for the approved expenses.
“We, therefore, propose that funding of Covid-19 medical emergency allowance for staff at the national level and other welfare benefits be met from existing allocations and any shortfall that may arise be funded through reallocations within the existing budgetary provision of the Universal Health Coverage.”
But speaking on the counties’ preparedness to handle the pandemic last week, Council of Governors chairman Wycliffe Oparanya decried lack of funds as counties are yet to access the equitable share of disbursements.
He said this was a result of bureaucracies in the office of the Controller of Budget which has imposed unnecessary conditions for disbursement of funds to the counties.
“A total of Sh85.6 billion, which is 27 per cent of the total allocation, is yet to be disbursed to the counties. The council takes great exception with this gatekeeping and calls upon the Controller of Budget to respect the rule of law and follow the court orders which will ensure money belonging to the county governments is disbursed without delay,” Oparanya said.
In addition, the CoG chair said counties are yet to access any donor funds due to failure by the national government to provide guidelines on the absorption of grants from DANIDA for the fight against the pandemic.
“Following correspondence by DANIDA, we have noted the frustration that the development partner is facing from the national treasury that has hampered expeditious processing of the money meant for an emergency response to the current crisis," he said.
Edited by EKibii