The dons called off their strike on Saturday/CFM
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 9 – The sun bearing down on them, the university dons were subdued on Saturday when they wearily accepted to pick up the tools they downed a month ago.
The resoluteness that had been on display only days earlier when the dons vowed they would not go back to work unless and until the promised improvements on their terms of service were realised, was muted.
On Saturday however, the mood was quite different as the Universities Academic Staff Union directed its members to resume work.
“Today’s agreement is a compromise, and coming to it was challenging,” the Union’s Secretary General Constantine Wasonga was not too proud to admit.
Still, he said, they had walked away with the best they could hope to get in the prevailing circumstances; including a promise that there members would not be victimised for resorting to industrial action.
They also walked away with the promise of the speedy commencement of negotiations for the next Collective Bargaining Agreement and a commitment that what was in arrears would be paid out in a timely fashion.
“Universities are fully implementing the national 2013-2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA); (ii) All pending Internal 2013-2017 CBAs for individual universities be completed by 28th February 2018… UASU thanks the Inter-Public Universities Council Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) and government for their commitment to commence, within 10 days, talks on the 2017-2021 CBA – an agreement that is expected to restructure lecturers’ wage structure and enhance quality education,” their statement of acquiescence reads.
READ: Police squelch the life out of ‘poor’ dons’ protest march
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