Thursday, March 15, 2012

Kenyan health workers call off strike




Written By:Margaret Kalekye/PMPS,    Posted: Wed, Mar 14, 2012
The nurses had downed their tools to demand for harmonised allowances among other things
The striking health workers have finally agreed to resume their duties after Prime Minister Raila Odinga promised to address their grievances.
 A crisis meeting held for the better part of Wednesday resolved that the health workers report back to work unconditionally to facilitate normalcy in public hospitals.
The resolution comes after the government constituted a task force to address issues raised by the workers representatives during the meeting with the Premier.
 "The quick wins are to be implemented immediately while matters with budgetary implication would be addressed with effect from 1st of July this year" the statement asserted.
The PM's statement which was read by Assistant Minister Alfred Khangati assured the striking workers that they will not be victimized for participating in the strike unless they failed to resume work immediately.
Raila also directed Health officials to immediately withdraw disciplinary letters recently issued to the striking workers.
"However Health workers who fail to report to duty by the end of tomorrow Thursday 15th March 2012 would be liable for disciplinary action individually and in accordance with existing regulations for public servants" the statement read.
The PM who partly chaired the crisis talks with members of the Kenya Health Professionals Society and the Union of Kenya Civil Servants officials said the task force will look into both the long and short term solution to the problem.
The task force is expected to commence sitting by the 21st of this month to resolve the problems affecting the health sector leading to the strike that paralyzed operations in all public hospitals.
Meanwhile, Medical Services Minister Prof. Anyang' Nyong'o has assured the health workers that they  will not be victimized.
Prof Nyong'o said that official letters written by the Permanent Secretary in his ministry have been dispatched to Provincial Director of Medical Services (PDMS) across the country withdrawing the suspension letters that had been sent earlier.
The minister was speaking at Coast Provincial General hospital (CPGH) during the official opening of the rehabilitation and equipping of the facility under a five year Project on the rehabilitation of 23 Hospitals nationwide at a cost of Shs 2.7 Billion funded by Netherlands.
However, Prof. Nyong'o stated that around 5,000 health workers who had failed to report to work by Monday this week will have to make an official explanation why they had absconded duty.
He noted that the situation had returned to normalcy in health facilities across the country and that the negotiations between the government and the health workers representatives were going on.

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