A court has barred the Council of Governors (CoG) from interfering with engagements between the Kenya National Union of Nurses and county governments.
According to a judgement issued by Justice Njagi Marete of the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nyeri, the CoG lacks the mandate to issue any directives to County Public Service Boards on issues concerning nurses.
In a suit between KNUN and Murang’a, as well as its Public Service Board, the judge found that the CoG did not have the right to order the county employer to stop KNUN’s statutory deductions.
He quashed a circular issued by the CoG, dated February 15, 2019, ordering all county employers to stop deducting and remitting the Sh500 union fee from each of their employees’ salaries.
Justice Marete ordered Murang’a to pay Sh765,000 in dues accrued between March and October 2018, as well as a Sh2.4 million debt accrued from January 2019.
Murang’a had stopped remitting the statutory fees directly to trade unions, paying nurses' salaries in full instead, an action which Justice Marete ruled was against the Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) signed by county governments and KNUN.
According to the CBA, devolved units with more than five employees who are members of the trade union should deduct and remit Sh500 as the monthly membership fee.
County governments should also remit another Sh150 deducted from each employee, payable to the Central Organization of Trade Unions (Cotu).
Justice Marete found that by failing to deduct the fees, the Murang’a County government paralysed operations at the local KNUN office because of lack of funds.
“This inaction by the respondent must therefore be curbed by ensuring employers who indulge in these malpractices are forced to bear the loss from their kitty,” said the judge.
The devolved unit will therefore be expected to source for the funds from its businesses to pay the debt.
This follows a similar judgement by the same court on July 16, in which the Embu County government and its Public Service Board were ordered to pay KNUN Sh3 million in dues accrued since last year.
The county stopped deducting the statutory fees for its 561 nurses in September. For the months of September and October 2020 only, the debt had grown to Sh682,511.
Embu County Secretary, Mr Johnson Nyaga, had told the court that the National Treasury delayed disbursement of the funds for the 2020/2021 financial year, stalling the county’s operations.
But Justice Marete ruled that by the time of delivering the judgement, the funds had already been released but the county government was yet to resume payment of the debt.
The county government’s officers will appear before the court on December 15 to confirm payment of the full amount.
