Nurses, employer finally strike deal

You can now access treatment in any public hospital after nurses called off their three-week long strike yesterday.

The Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) Nyeri branch and the county government yesterday signed a back-to-work formula at a ceremony presided over by the County Labour Officer Florence Gakui.

Besides agreeing to rescind an earlier public notice that it would sack the nurses, the county government said it would withdraw the contempt of court proceedings it had filed against the medics at the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi.

"We are therefore directing all our members to resume their duties before noon today (yesterday). There will be no victimisation whatsoever of any nurse who took part in the industrial action," said KNUN Nyeri Branch Secretary General Beatrice Nduati.

The deal was reached following negotiations with the County Public Service Board, the Human Resource Department at the County Labour office on Tuesday afternoon.

Among the things the county government consented to expedite include processing of promotions and redesignations of all deserving health workers.

The county also agreed to remit all the statutory deductions by October 6, and implement house allowance back-dated to July 1 as directed by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.

It was also agreed all cases of health staff whose annual salary increment had a hitch will be forwarded to the human resource director for action. The county government assured the nurses that appropriate mechanisms were already in place to deal with staff shortage.

"Both parties agreed to henceforth uphold the spirit of dialogue in all matters pertaining to industrial relation and to appear again on October 6 before the County Labour Officer when we will give an appraisal of the progress so far," said KNUN Nyeri chairperson Ann Githiong'o.