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| Close to two months since doctors across the country downed their tools demanding the implementation of the 2013 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), there seems to be no end in sight as the medics and the government maintain hardliner stances. |
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If implemented, the 2013 CBA would see the lowest paid doctor earn a salary of over Ksh 300,000 and the highest paid would earn slightly under Ksh 1 million per month.
However, the government has persistently argued that CBA is exaggerated and did not involve the salaries body – Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), and the Council of Governors.
The doctors’ strike followed after a three-year industrial dispute concerning the disputed CBA signed on June 27, 2013 and was to be effected on July 1, 2013.
KMPDU further accuses the government side of failing to show any good will in the negotiation process but instead threatening them with sacking and law suits.
Early Tuesday, doctors led by KMPDU chairperson, Samuel Oroko, and Secretary General, Ouma Oluga, said they are ready to go to jail if that is the only way to achieve reforms in the health sector.
The KMPDU officials are set to appear in court on Thursday, January 26 for sentencing for contempt of court.
Addressing the press Tuesday evening, Health Cabinet Secretary, Dr Cleopa Mailu, said that the talks with the doctors had not reached a conclusion yet.
“I would like to let Kenyans know that those discussions have not come to a conclusion,” said Dr Mailu.
The CS said that the doctors’ union officials walked out of talks despite the government tabling an offer that would see them elevated to a higher job group.
“We have done everything possible, both financially and in other aspects stipulated in the CBA.”
He, however, said that doctors are expected to give their response by Friday, January 27 on whether they will take the offer or not.
Early this month, the government had offered a 40 per cent pay increment deal, that the doctors declined saying they would accept nothing but the full implementation of the CBA.
The government also offered to raise the entry level grade for the public service for doctors to Job Group “M” from Job Group “L”, a grade it terms as higher than the normal entry level for other public servants and recognises doctors’ professional training.
The government further offered to raise the Enhanced Emergency Call allowance to Ksh 66,000 from the current Ksh 30,000 for Job Group L; Ksh 72,000 from Ksh 30,000 for Job Groups M-P; and Ksh 80,000 from Ksh 30,000 for Job Groups Q and above.
A new Doctors’ risk allowance was on offer at a flat rate of Ksh 10,000 per month. “The sum total of the government’s offer means that the minimum gross salary for doctors will increase to Ksh 196,989 from the current Ksh 140,244 at full implementation at the current entry Job Group L,” read the government’s statement in part.
“The total impact of the government offer on the exchequer will be an additional expenditure of Ksh4 billion annually – shared among the nation’s 5,000 doctors.”
The government had, however, termed the CBA illegal, saying it was not registered and could therefore to be implemented. On January 13, Dr Mailu said that the government was still willing to negotiate with the doctors and agree on the way forward.
Addressing the press at Afya House, Mailu called on the doctors to obey court orders which directed them, through their union, to end the strike that has paralysed operations in government health facilities.
“We need to negotiate a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that is legal. I want to emphasize we cannot operate outside the law,” said Mailu.