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Roundup: Kenyan nurses call off strike after pay deal signed

Xinhua, December 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

Kenyan nurses on Wednesday called off their strike over pay after an agreement was reached with the government, while doctors said they would continue.

Secretary-General of the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN), Seth Panyako, signed the return-to-work deal with the Council of Governors and Health Ministry officials.

"We are very happy that we have reached an agreement and what we have discussed will be handled in the collective bargaining agreement talks beginning January 2017," Panyako told journalists.

"From now, the nurses should begin going to work, the strike is off," announced Panyako, who had earlier walked out of talks, citing a lack of seriousness on the part of the government.

The nationwide strike, which began on Dec. 5, has paralyzed operations in most public hospitals and health facilities. Doctors are yet to go back to work.

Cases of patients dying or suffering as a result of the ongoing strike have been reported in some hospitals and reported death of more than 20 patients have drawn condemnation from the Kenyan public.

The government has declared the strike illegal and ordered the nurses and doctors to return to work.

Details of the Wednesday deal between the government and the nurses' union was scanty, but the government last week announced that nurses in Job Group G-L will receive a top up of 200 U.S. dollars and those in Job Group M and above will get 150 dollars from January 2017.

The payment will be administered in two phases in the proportion of 60 percent and 40 percent in the months of January 2017 and July 2017 respectively.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists' Union (KMPPDU) and KNUN had defied a court order and went on strike on Dec. 5 to demand for a 300-percent and a 25-45 percent salary increment respectively.

The doctors and nurses said that the industrial action was occasioned by three years of industrial dispute concerning a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) signed in 2013.

KMPPDU Secretary-General Ouma Oluga vowed on Wednesday that doctors will not resume their duties until the CBA signed in 2013 is fully implemented.

"We as a union are ready to go to the full end of that legal issue. If it is being arrested that will end patients suffering, we want to tell the government to do so now," Oluga told journalists in Nairobi.

The government last week offered a 500-dollar increase for the lowest-paid doctors, which would raise their salaries to 1,760 dollars, but unions rejected it and walked out of talks.

Under Kenya's new constitution, health functions are the role of county governments but the union was adamant that the transfer of power to county governments should be carried out in phases. Endit