Treasury has been directed to make additional budgetary allocations to settle the pending varsities salary row.
Employment and Labour Relations Court judge Maureen Anyango on Thursday said a decision by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to cap the budget for university lecturers at Sh8.8 billion was not sufficient to implement their collective bargaining agreements signed last year.
As a result, she directed SRC, to work together with the Inter Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) committee, the Ministry of Education and Treasury to make necessary additional budgetary allocations to enable public universities implement the CBAs.
The court confirmed that the computation by IPUCCF was accurate and that the figure of Sh8.8 billion is not sufficient to implement the CBAs.
This is so because it did not include the annual increments and the resultant pension liabilities payable by IPUCCF. According to the court records, the original proposal by the unions was to cost Sh38.5 billion to implement.
But SRC said the implementation must be undertaken within the allocation of Sh8.8 billion. It said the tabulation by the implementation committee which indicated the implementation as Sh13 billion is erroneous.
Judge Onyango in her judgement said SRC arrived at the figure of Sh8.8 billion based on horizontal implementation of the CBA meaning that the SRC excluded an annual increment. "CBAs signed and registered as well as the computation by the implementation committees of the universities is correct and is based on the unaltered matrix as presented to IPUCCF by SRC," said the Judge.