Health crisis deepens as clinical officers issue strike notice

The Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO) now says clinical officers will down their tools over frustrations in the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations.

Speaking during a press briefing in Nakuru, Union chairman Peterson Wachira said that a decision on the strike notice will be issued after an advisory council meeting slated for February 16, 2019.

According to the Union chair, their bid to have a special meeting with the government, the county governments and the Salary and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to resolve their issues has not been successful.

“Most of the time they say we have refused to go for alternative dispute resolutions mechanisms but in this case we have exhausted all means but the government is determined to say that this issue can only be resolved after a strike,” said Wachira.

According to the Union, negotiations started in December 2017 with a timeline of up to January 31, 2018 but dragged up to April 2018 when the government allegedly walked out of the negotiating table.

Guided by the Labour Relations Act 2007 the Union then wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Labour who in turn appointed a conciliator.

The union is now accusing the government of refusing to honour the process since the CS has allegedly refused to release the conciliation report which they claim is a collusion with the employer to frustrate the negotiations.