On Tuesday, November 20, 2018, nurses warned that they would walk out on December 10 unless the Ministry of Health and county governments implemented a pay agreement covering uniform and risk allowances.
The Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) said the dispute centres on benefits for 26,000 nurses, including an annual Sh5,000 uniform allowance and a rise in risk allowance from Sh20,000 to Sh23,000, after what the union says was a deal reached in November 2017 that helped end a five-month strike.
KNUN said the package would add about Sh1 billion to the wage bill in 2018 and rise to Sh3.1 billion in the year starting July 2021. The national government is expected to pay nurses in referral hospitals such as Kenyatta National Hospital, while county governments would cover the rest.
Union secretary-general Seth Panyako told Reuters: “Further note that after 21 days, and the same shall not be implemented, all our members in the county governments and national referral facilities shall commence strike on December 10,”
He said the union had repeatedly written to the relevant offices and sought meetings, but had not received a meaningful response. The union also said the agreement would have raised the uniform allowance by Sh5,000 a year for three years starting July 2018, from Sh10,000, while the nursing allowance would increase by Sh9,000 in stages over the same period.
According to the union, a diploma-holding nurse, commonly referred to as a registered nurse, earns a starting salary of Sh71,980 and an annual leave allowance of Sh4,000. KNUN argued that nurses would remain among the best-paid public servants without university degrees if the deal was honoured.
The row comes against the backdrop of a public wage bill of about Sh627 billion a year for 700,000 public employees, including elected leaders, nearly half of government revenue. The Salaries and Remuneration Commission has continued to oppose higher pay demands, saying the wage bill is unsustainable.
By 2021, the same implementation timeline cited in the agreement, the union said the package would have pushed the cost of the allowances to Sh3.1 billion in the year starting July 2021.
