Meru County health workers end strike after clinching deal

Meru County Secretary and Head of Public Service Julius Kimathi exchanges an agreement to break a 20 -day workers strike with Kenya National Union of Nurses Meru Secretary Nesbitt Mugendi. (PHOTO: PETER MUTHOMI/ STANDARD)

Kenya National Union of Nurses officials made the announcement on Tuesday evening following two days of negotiations with county representatives.

Under the new deal, the county government agreed to promote more health workers, including 68 employees who have been in the same job group despite being eligible for automatic elevation.

The county government also committed to reviewing staff contracts under the latest Public Service Commission guidelines, including giving due consideration to the years served in one's current job group.

Following a similar strike in September last year, KNUN negotiated an agreement that allowed them to call another strike by December 26 this year if all the issues would not have been addressed by December 24.

This means the county government has two months to implement all the issues agreed on.

County Secretary Julius Kimathi and KNUN Relations Officer Dismus Kigen, who represented Secretary General Seth Panyako, chaired the negotiations.

Among the issues marked as resolved were providing personal identification numbers (PIN) for all staff, promoting staff on application, confirming staff on probation and restoring extraneous allowances for some staff in Imenti North and Igembe.

Others were harmonising house allowances and paying salaries on time.