County governments have resolved to institute disciplinary action against health workers.
Speaking during an extra-ordinary council meeting on the ongoing labour unrest in the health sector on Tuesday, Council of Governors chairperson Anne Waiguru said the workers have absconded duty contrary to the court directive.
"As we await the court to determine this matter tomorrow April 17, 2024. It is noted that health workers have absconded duty contrary to the court directive and therefore county governments will institute disciplinary action against them," she said.
The Kirinyaga Governor warned that if the state agrees to implement the 2017 CBA, other civil servants will suffer the consequences.
"If the national government agrees to the implementation of the CBA, this will have a ripple effect on all the civil servants' basic pay and we will require additional allocation of resources to all the counties," she said.
Waiguru said senior medical doctors are paid 103 per cent higher which is double the amount that is paid to non-health workers in the public service and other doctors in the private sector.
Additionally, she said, a county senior medical officer is paid Sh479,000.
The Star could not ascertain this by the time of press.
She appreciated that there has been a series of consultative meetings between the two levels of government and the unions seeking to resolve the pending issues and that there have been discussions between the county governments and their doctors to address their concerns.
The CoG maintained that it does not fault the Whole of Nation Approach directive by the court whose aim is to have a long-lasting solution to the perennial industrial unrest in the health sector.
"However, this is not tenable as both the national and county governments are independent and distinct employers," it added.
"As duty bearers, we cannot afford to remain silent as Kenyans continue to suffer and in other unfortunate cases, death, due to an unprotected strike and that the doctors have not complied with the court directive. The Constitution defines doctors as essential workers and therefore they are not expected to abandon their stations of duty."
At the same time, Waiguru noted that there are currently 890 doctors, pharmacists, and dentists who have been released by various counties and are currently on postgraduate training. Additionally, the counties have also continued to pay their salaries during their training period.
Acknowledging this, she said the situation deprives counties of the substantial amount of resources which could otherwise be used to recruit more doctors to handle patients while the rest are on postgraduate training.
"To this effect, county governments will undertake the costing of doctors on post-graduate studies for purposes of allocation of the resources for recruitment to fill the gaps and offer services during this training period," the Governor said.
