Sunday, June 16, 2013

Public servants promise battle over pay

By Linah Benyawa
MOMBASA, KENYA: Public servants have threatened to cripple all government operations come next week following government’s failure to fulfill the agreements they made.
Under the umbrella of the Federation of Public Servants Trade Unions of Kenya (Pusetu) the unionists claimed that the government shortchanged them by slashing their Collective Bargaining Agreements ( CBA) benefits by half in the National budget estimate that was read on Thursday by National Treasury cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich.
Led by the First Deputy secretary General of the Union of Kenya Civil Servants ( UKCS) Jerry Ole Kina, the unionists warned of a major battle on Saturday between the civil servants and the government arguing that they were tired of being taken for granted.
“The civil servants are dilapidated, we are poorly remunerated, we are the lowest paid and we have been diplomatic enough in requesting for better pay but it has fallen on deaf ears, in this regard, we are going to cripple all government operations starting next week so that we fight for our rights,” said ole Kina.
He said this in Mombasa during the Kenya University Staff Union National Delegates Conference where him together with Kenya National Union of teachers (Knut) National treasurer Albanus Mutisya and Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) Secretary General Dr Charles Mukhwaya who warned of a titanic battle between the government and the all public servants warning to pursue all avenues and make sure there plight is addressed.
“We are worried with the Government’s decision of putting its priorities wrongly, like the laptop project, the teachers teaching in these lower classes do not have the skills on how to operate a computer yet we want to give them these gadgets, instead of employing enough teachers we are wasting funds on projects that not very urgent,” said Mutisya.
Mutisya argued that the government had ignored the signed agreements they made to teachers arguing that they were capable of handling the government adding that there was no way the government projects would run if the civil servants were not working.
“We tried to talk to Treasury, ministry of education to ensure they actualize the agreements they made with us. We cannot implement the laptop projects yet the teachers are not enough, we are going to demand our rights outside the classrooms,” he warned.
At the same Kusu Secretary General University Dr Mukhawa warned that they would shut down all the universities come next week.
“The government has slashed the CBA by half which against the signed 2012/2013 agreement where University staffs were to be paid Sh3.9billion effective July this year. We wish to categorically state that we will not allow this blatant violation of our rights and warn the government that such action will not be tolerated and we will go out to get what is rightfully ours,” said Mukhwaya.
Mukhwaya argued that the university staffs expected the government to respect legal documents and agreements and not engage in theatrics.
“We expect a government that has just been elected on the platform of change to respect legal documents and not engage in theatrics of pulling faithful workers from their work stations into the streets,” he added.
He said they would come together on Monday with all the unions including Knut, Kuppet, Uasu and union of Kenya Civil Servants (Ukcs) where they would have preliminary discussions on the decisions by the government to reduce their agreed perks and come up with a major statement on the action they would take against the government.
“The union also support our brothers and sisters in the education sector on their demands that then government boost the education budget, instead of engaging in gimmicks of actualizing the laptop programme to primary schools by downsizing agreed and set allocations. Though we are not wholly opposed to the government realizing its dream, it must be seen to sacrifice quality in education at the altar of not so well thought out so-called laptop programme,” he said.

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