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Don’s adamant ‘not boarding’ as strike clocks 69 days

The dons are adamant their demands must first be met as previous assurances from government have rarely gone beyond lip service/JEREMIAH WAKAYA

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 8 – The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) has vowed to resist attempts to force striking dons back to lecture halls so long as the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is not negotiated, signed, and a return-to-work formula crafted.

Speaking to the press at UASU offices on Tuesday morning, Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga dismissed the recent administrative action by Technical University of Kenya (TUK) instructing the college tutors to sign commitment letters to normalise teaching activities in the pendency of CBA talks.

He termed TUK’s actions as “mere gimmicks” that would not end the current strike by dons and that entered its 69th day on Tuesday.

“TUK just told us the other day that lecturers had overwhelmingly accepted to go and work. Today we’re being told they’ve advertised for part-time lecturers,” Wasonga posed.

“Look for free labour! We’re not boarding!” he declared to laughter from union bosses who attended Tuesday’s media briefing.

Wasonga wondered why TUK had advertised for part-time lecturers if indeed teaching staff had accepted to resume their duties.

“TUK cannot purport that dons have overwhelmingly accepted to go back to class then you advertise for part-time lecturers and it is on record that you do not pay part-time lecturers,” he argued.

Wasonga separately accused the University of Nairobi, Moi University, and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology of failing to remit statutory deductions to relevant entities with TUK being singled out as the most notorious with Sh2.1 billion in statutory deductions yet to be remitted.

According to Wasonga, TUK was holding Sh1 billion in pension deductions, Sh200 million in SACCO remittances, Sh65 million in National Hospital Insurance Fund payments, Sh100 million in outpatient claims, Sh600 million Kenya Revenue Authority returns and Sh25 million in UASU dues.

Wasonga also accused TUK of failing to pay insurance premiums and Higher Education Loans Board.

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“You (TUK) owe members statutory deductions in excess of Sh2.1 billion and you want us to call off the strike before we address these injustices?  We want to know where these monies went to. They are our monies,” the union boss charged.

UASU has projected that the implementation of its 2017-2021 CBA will cost between Sh38 and Sh40 billion but the Inter-Public Universities Council Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) is yet to table a counter offer.

The union during the media briefing on Tuesday accused IPUCCF of bullying striking dons despite the councils’ failure to table a counter offer since UASU declared a nationwide strike on March 1.

Kenyatta University was cited as having called security services into its main campus on Monday where UASU said members were intimidated and a branch union administrator arrested.

Several public universities have maintained that learning remained undisrupted despite work boycotts by lecturers something that has negatively impacted the January- April semester.

TUK was the first public university to report resumption of learning last week after stalled CBA talks between university workers unions and IPUCCF.

In a memo released on April 30, TUK Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Administration, Planning and Infrastructure Prof Joseph Kiplang’at, said the university’s senate had resolved that all academic activities at the institution resume on May 2.

He said that an overwhelming majority of lecturers at the institution had signed commitment letters to normalise operations.

“It has emerged that an overwhelming number of staff members are willing and ready to continue discharging their duties,” the memo read in part.

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The latest strike by public universities lecturers is the fourth in less than fifteen months.

Three previous strikes in 2017 lasted a cumulative 108 days.

UASU had at the beginning of the January-April semester in 2017 called for a strike that lasted 54 days as they demanded the negotiation of the 2013-2017 CBA.

The 54-day strike was called off on March 13, 2017 after an award of Sh10 billion which saw a 17.5 and 3.9 per cent increment in salaries and house allowances of lecturers.

The strike was later reignited on July 3 after UASU faulted the government for defaulting on the agreed upon payment schedule.

The second strike for the year was called off on July 18 with UASU Secretary General Constantine Wasonga saying the union had received a legally binding commitment from the government that the CBA would be honoured.

The third strike was called on November 1 after UASU protested the implementation of the 2013-2017 CBA in two phases after the first installment of Sh10 billion was wired to universities in June under the 2016/17 Financial Year.

The remaining amount of Sh5.2 billion was transmitted late November under the 2017/18 Fiscal Year amid a paralysis in public universities.

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The strike dragged on until December 9 when UASU signed a return-to-work formula which introduced a new clause requiring negotiations for the 2017-2021 CBA commence on December 18 and be concluded by January 31.

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