Court declares lecturers’ strike illegal

Employment and Labour Relations court has ordered lecturers to call off their strike and resume work next week Monday.

Judge Onesmus Makau further directed the government to give the lectures a counter proposal within 30 days.

“In my view I find that the strike is not in compliance with the mandatory procedure provided in the Labour Relations Act and section 76(b) and 78(1) (e) of the act,” the judge ruled.

Last week, the lecturers argued that the ongoing strike is legal adding that the strike complied with all the provisions of the constitution.

They also accused the Vice Chancellors Union for not been serious and not negotiating in good faith adding that despite having their CBA proposal, they have delayed and not provided their counter proposal.

“Failure by claimant to submit their counter proposal stalled the negotiations since there was nothing to juxtapose with and compare with the respondents’ proposal,” argue the lectures.

In their responses filed in court, the lecturers argue that the petitioners – Vice Chancellors Union – have never had any counter proposal to form the basis of concluding the collective bargaining agreement negotiations.

They further say that when the period within which parties had agreed to conclude the CBA discussion lapsed, they notified the VC union on their frustrations on their reluctance to engage them.

Similarly, they claim that they had no option but to issue a seven-day strike notice to the union and to the Ministry of Labor as required by law.

“In the instance case, in the absence of a counter proposal by the claimant, there was nothing for a conciliator to resolve hence the need for a seven-day strike notice,” argued lawyer Titus Koceyo.

The lectures also asked the court to urge the VC union to file their counter proposal.

Public Universities Union moved to court to overturn the ongoing lecturers strike accusing the dons of reneging on pay talks.

The Vice-Chancellors Committee says it was unlawful for the University Academic Staff Union (Uasu) and Kenya Universities Academic Staff Union (KUSU) to call the strike yet talks are ongoing over salary review running from July 2017 to 2021.

Public university lecturers resumed a nationwide strike last week Thursday over low pay, nearly three months after ending a similar protest. The dons have cited lack of goodwill from the Inter-Public Universities Council Consultative Forum (IPCCF) on the issue.

“It is imperative and of urgency that this court issues an injunction against the industrial action called for by UASU as it is unlawful and will disrupt the forum’s operations unjustifiably as well as set a bad precedent for industrial relations,” IPCCF said.

The petitioner argued that students are in the middle of their school sessions and the unprotected strike will cause disruptions, frustrations, hamper reasonable attendance to class as well as examinations and interfere with whole academic calendar of universities.