Thursday, May 9, 2024 – The Government of President William Ruto may have played doctors in signing the return-to-work formula that ended the 56-day strike.
This is after it emerged that they didn’t
get what they were looking for, especially on the issue of intern doctors who
are demanding a salary of Ksh206,000.
KMPDU Secretary General Davji
Atellah speaking afterwards revealed that the union and the government failed
to reach a deal on this specific issue because the matter was still in court
and as such, KMPDU wanted to give lawyers adequate time to resolve the matter
within the confines of the law.
“One of the fundamental matters
that was the issue of medical interns, it is still pending, this matter was in
court in Eldoret and it has been part of the conversations and we could not
come to an agreement”, stated Davji.
It was agreed that the
lawyers request the Labour Court more time to ratify the return-to-work formula
before a direction was issued to the interns.
Meanwhile, the union directed
doctors to return to their working stations within 24 hours after the deal was
announced.
Further Atellah revealed that
despite the union being adamant about having all their demands met, the
union conceded to the government’s promises as KMPDU officials were
assured that the government would over the long term honour its part of the
bargain.
On the other hand, the Ministry
revealed that a task force would be set up to resolve the pending matters while
the government worked to improve the human resource conditions for the doctors.
A spot check on the working
formula showed that the national and county governments had agreed to
compensate the doctors Ksh3.5 billion in arrears owed.
Further, the government also
agreed to clear arrears stemming from the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement
(CBA) in five instalments.
The government also agreed to
issue a comprehensive cover for doctors as well as implement other
agreements reached in the 2017 CBA.
The Kenyan DAILY POST
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