Saturday April 13, 2024 - Labour Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore has told her Health counterpart, Susan Nakhumicha, to agree to dialogue with the striking doctors, saying the strike is doing more harm than anticipated.
In a statement to Kenyans, Bore noted that the ongoing strike
was putting Kenyans at risk, insisting on the need for the workers to get back
to work.
She asked the health workers to consider dialogue to end the
ongoing crisis in the sector.
Bore has insisted on the need to employ negotiations as the
way forward in resolving the ongoing crisis and consider both parties in the
final decision.
Citing the Industrial Relations Framework, the statement
highlighted social dialogue, tripartite relations, social equity, fairness,
justice and the rule of law as the building blocks for negotiations in
resolving the health crisis.
“I wish to remind the unions that whereas the framework to
exercise freedom of Association and the right to industrial action is provided
for in the Constitution, the right to strike is not absolute,” Bore
warned.
The Ministry further directed the Unions involved
to suspend the nationwide strike and sit down with the Ministry of Health
and the 47 counties.
“The union needs to direct its members to get back to work,
to pave the way for meaningful negotiations to take place to find a lasting
solution,” the letter read in part.
Speaking to the practitioners directly, Bore urged the
doctors, clinical officers and laboratory technicians to return to work and
give dialogue a chance.
“It is our position that industrial peace and harmony must be
maintained at all times for the well-being of everybody.”
Following the four-week doctors' strike, several counties
have resulted in suspension and threatened to get the health workers back to
work.
The
Kenyan DAILY POST
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