Dons threaten to paralyze learning in public universities over CBA

University lecturers could be out of the lecture rooms in the next 21 days if their Collective Bargain Agreement(CBA) worth Sh10 billion is not implemented.

Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU), secretary general, Constantine Wesonga, issued the notice on Tuesday to more than thirty public universities. He said the boycott cannot be stopped this time round till their demands for better pay is put in place.

According to the agreement, there will be a 17.5 per cent increase in each lecturer’s basic pay and an extra 3.9 per cent on their house allowances.

“The strike is over the failure by the university councils to implement basic salary and house allowance at the levels provided for under the 2013-2017 CBA and to protest the blatant violations of  the university workers fundamental and freedoms  under article 41 of the Kenya constitution 2010,” said Dr Wasonga.

This is the second time within a span of one year the dons are threatening to go on strike after they issued another strike notice in June this year.

The lecturers who had been on a three-week strike at the beginning of the year demanding the implementation of the CBA said they want the 2013-2017 agreement to be fulfilled before any negotiations for the 2017-2021  bargains can take place.

This will be the fourth time the varsities calendar will be disrupted in public institutions considering students were out of class for August 8 elections and are expected to break for the October 26 fresh presidential election since the previous one was nullified by the supreme court.

The strike will kick off on October 31, if the lecturers make true their threats.