Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has called for an urgent meeting of all council chairmen of the 31 public universities and colleges on Monday, in a bid to try and resolve the ongoing lecturers’ strike.
The meeting is set to discuss the best way to handle the industrial action, which has disrupted learning in some universities.It is set for Monday afternoon and will be seeking to find a way to restore normalcy at the Universities.
The strike has persisted even after the Employment and Labour Relations Court ordered both teaching and non-teaching staff from the universities to resume work.
Justice Onesmus Makau had on Friday directed the Union officials to call off the strike forthwith and the employees to resume work on Monday 9 April at 8 am.
The judge ordered the University of Nairobi through Inter Public University Council Consultative Forum (IUCCF) to present their counter-proposal to CS Labour. The proposal is in regard to 2017-2021 CBA and serves the same to the union within 21 days so as to be used during the conciliation process.
Justice Makau further ordered the Union to comply with the order of the court by calling off the strike. The judge also pointed out that members of the union should not be victimized for participating in the unprotected strike. The court said that Union should not blame the University for the stalled negotiation, saying that the dispute resolution was started by IUCCF on behalf of Public Universities.
The court agreed with the National Treasury, Ministry of Labour, Education, Salaries, and Remuneration Commission that IUCCF failure to present a counterproposal for purpose of negotiation has caused a delay in interagency collaborations between parties.
This article was written by Simon Ndonga, and published on Capital News.
