Doctors and Lecturers Fall for Government Tricks Again

[Omollo]

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Both the doctors and the Lecturers have called off their strikes. They admit that they called off the strikes without "all of" their demands being met. Thus they suggest that "some" of the demands have been met.

It is possible that Uhuru Kenyatta has by some miracle worked out a rare balance between his mercurial threats and the sober but dishonest negotiations (under threat of jail) and managed to get two of the three most militant labor relations groups in Kenya to return to work (Teachers lead).

I have my doubts.

For starters the two groups lost political support and by that financial support to carry through the strike. Do not believe any stories about sacrifices and all that. All those glossy posters and media campaigns and expensive advocates are attracted to money. Doctors received lots of support from doctors' organizations around the world. It goes without saying. Lecturers are somewhat disadvantaged and rely on support through sister trade unions around the world.

I think Uhuru Kenyatta figured out the source of the money and shut the taps and added a padlock.

Salaries and allowances were stopped. Though doctors still make money especially when there is a strike!

My point is that after 100 days, they could have managed another week or two when Uhuru would have given in.

Instead they have agreed to the same deal that they hurriedly signed in 2013 and which Uhuru as usual promptly reneged on it. This will be no different. Why?

Health is a devolved function. The doctors made a deal with the wrong entity in 2013. May be they simply did not understand how Devolution worked and imagined that Uhuru would order county governments to implement the CBA. They have been barking at the wrong tree for the last 100 days.

They have now entered a deal with the same National Government and believe it will be implemented. County governments are becoming headstrong and stubborn as they realize the money they receive ain't close to enough to meet their needs. Most are mortgaged to well connected banks though almost illegal deals that place their annual income in jeopardy.
 
As for the lecturers I am sorry but there is no doubt that the government will screw them - even if just for the fun of it. They simply have no leverage.

We have fellas in Luoland we call Jajuok. They like physical education at night. They love to fart in the windows of men who are not members of their PE Club. If two meet at the same window and recognize each other, they run and make sure they avoid each other during the day.

Most of the private hospitals and Universities are owned by the people who run the government. They set them close to public hospitals and universities for a simple reason: The poach government staff.

Now the people in government cannot take action against the Night Running doctors and lecturers because it will ruin their hospitals and universities. They pay them well. But again they cannot take nonsense ^from them during the day when they are pretending not to be jajuoks. Even funnier, the hospital  and University owners cannot reveal the secret of the lecturers and doctors being jajuok. Why? Because some kid might ask a simple question: Daddy how do you know he is a night runner?

[Omollo]

Let me see.... June 30th will be about 37 days to election day. mmhh

If you need to go on a lawful strike for unpaid dues, you must provide a 30 day notice... The grievance would not have become apparent within a week of 30th June, would it?

In brief, the lecturers have been screwed again!

Public university lecturers are set for huge cash windfall in accumulated arrears after agreeing to resume work after the signing the Sh6 billion 2103-2017 collective bargaining agreement on Tuesday.

Details of the return-to-work formula signed by the university staff union, UASU, and Inter Public University Consultative Council Forum (IPUCCF) reveal that the highest paid academic staff, full professors, will get in excess of Sh1 million in arrears while the lowest paid staff, tutorial fellows and assistant lecturers, will pocket over Sh800, 000.

Under the signed deal, it was agreed that the lecturers will be paid in full, all the arrears accruing from the signed deal which will be backdated to July, 2013 at a date not later than June 30, 2017

http://www.nation.co.ke/news/education/Lecturers-to-get-huge-payouts-after-deal/2643604-3850556-mwqa4nz/index.html

[gout]

It was the only reasonable option given a stubborn government in cash crisis and a public (who are the tax generators/payers and consumers of the services by the doctors/lecturers) having an average income ten times less what these doctors & lecturers are earning.

[Omollo]

In reality I am shocked at the inhumanly low salaries. Why would anybody want to be a professor with a big name when the MCA earns more money? These a re sinfully low salaries. No wonder they get easily threatened.
 

It was the only reasonable option given a stubborn government in cash crisis and a public (who are the tax generators/payers and consumers of the services by the doctors/lecturers) having an average income ten times less what these doctors & lecturers are earning.

[gout]

Only the unproductive politicians and a few tenderpreneurs benefit in our current economic setup.

All the rest get raw deal, whether it is doctors, lecturers, engineers, coffee/sugar farmers, traders, factory hands, hawkers

Very few government employees earn over Kshs. 100,000

[Omollo]

That means the Salaries and Remuneration Commission has failed. The idea was to balance salaries and remove anomalies such as what you suggest.

Kenya has reached a point where public salaries should all be deliberately low so that there is motivation for people to move on to the private sector. I am was one of those who encouraged huge salaries at some point. I have since changed my mind. The bottom salaries should be way above inflation. But the top salaries should be low. The idea of government buying cars for people and having drivers should stop. Ministers should drive themselves.

Only the unproductive politicians and a few tenderpreneurs benefit in our current economic setup.

All the rest get raw deal, whether it is doctors, lecturers, engineers, coffee/sugar farmers, traders, factory hands, hawkers

Very few government employees earn over Kshs. 100,000