Striking varsity staff urged to get back to negotiating table

The Government has appealed to striking public universities staff to agree to return to the negotiating table to solve the prevailing labor dispute.

State Department for Higher Education and Research Principal Secretary Beatrice Inyangala said the Government was determined to offer university staff good terms of service to allow them dispense their services in a comfortable working environment.

She said universities play a critical role in developing the manpower required to achieve the country’s development aspirations and thus the welfare of the staff could not be wished away.

“It is on this basis that I urge the universities’ teaching and non-teaching staff to come back to the negotiating table and discuss with us the most practical and reasonable ways of resolving the prevailing standoff,” she said.

Speaking on Thursday when she presided over the 9th graduation ceremony of Embu University, the PS asked the striking staff to put the interest of the nation and the students first by agreeing to engage the government on the matter with a view to returning to work.

She however said all was not lost as the two universities workers’ unions; Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) and Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) had reached an agreement with the government on a number of issues.

At the level of UASU, she said they had reached consensus on five key issues including retirement age, a seven percent basic salary increment, car loan and mortgage scheme and the establishment of a national implementation committee to monitor rollout of newly signed Collective Bargaining Agreements.

For KUSU, the PS said they had reached consensus on the issue of annual leave and establishment of an implementation committee to oversee rollout of newly signed CBA.

“As Government therefore, we are determined to build momentum on these milestones we have achieved so far to resolve all the other issues amicably,” she said.