SRC releases new proposals for doctors' salaries

Salaries and Remuneration Commission chairperson Sarah Serem.PHOTO:COURTESY

Doctors yesterday started discussing a new salary structure, prepared by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, which proposes that the lowest paid intern gets Sh62,850 per month.

The latest round of discussions, if agreed on, will see the lowest ranked medical intern earn the said amount in Job group C-3, while the highest paid doctor, a Chief Medical Specialist one, in job group E4 will take home a maximum of Sh576,120.

It emerged yesterday the clergy-led mediation team had agreed on a number of issues that if ironed out would see the doctors sign a return to work formula (RTWF).

The SRC proposal - under consideration by all parties - will see a medical officer intern in Job Group C3-8 take home a minimum of Sh62,850 and a maximum of Sh68,165 in C3-10.

The medical intern will be able to move to the next level within a year. Under the proposal, doctors are negotiating medical officers pay be based on the recently released structure for all civil servants.

Among the details in the proposed deal is that medical doctors start at C5-8, whose minimum pay is Sh74,557 and earn a maximum of Sh81,148 within the job group.

Under the newly proposed pay structure for civil servants, E is the highest rank in the civil service while D1 is the lowest.

2013 CBA

As per the SRC proposal, a senior medical officer at D2-8 takes home a minimum of Sh119,686 and maximum of Sh130,226 within the grade.

Medical specialists II will start at D3-8, medical specialist I at D5-8 and E2-8 for senior medical specialist. The two highest ranked medical officers; Chief Medical Specialist II and I, will enter at E3-9 and E4-2 respectively.

If the Government has its way, the new salary will be effected on July 1, 2017, to coincide with civil servants’ new pay.

A draft of the proposed RTWF by the Government dated March 3, 2017 and seen by The Standard reveals that the Government did not recognise the new CBA as a key component that would have the doctors cave in and unlock the stalemate that has paralysed public healthcare services for the past 92 days.

In an interview with The Standard, Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu said doctors were aware of the circumstances under which the 2013 CBA was negotiated.

“It is not possible to sign a document which does not exist,” Dr Mailu said. “There is also a need for doctors to sign a recognition agreement with their employers that is the counties, which will then make it easier to recognise a CBA. These are some of the issues under discussion.”

The doctors are in agreement that their recognition agreements should be signed by all county governments, Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya Medical Research Institute and all public universities with medical, pharmacy and dental schools.

However, the RTWF ‘March 3, 2017 Draft’ recognises only county governments to sign the recognition agreements, a matter that the clergy led team tried to unlock yesterday.

The doctors were yesterday locked up in day-long meetings whose outcome is expected today when mediators will appear at the Court of Appeal.