Nairobi County staff resume work after reaching deal with employer

Nairobi County staff have ended a two-day strike after striking a deal with the county government over a raft of demands they wanted to be met.

The more than 11,000 workers downed their tools on Wednesday protesting among other things, delayed payment of salaries, lack of medical cover and lack of promotions, as part of nine grievances they wanted to be addressed.

However, the staff union, Kenya County Government Workers Union (KCGWU), agreed to call off the strike on Thursday night following a fruitful meeting with City Hall and the Nairobi County Public Service Board.

Revealing a white smoke at the end of the negotiation meeting that lasted the whole of Thursday, the three parties agreed that county staff access health facilities with the county chief finance officer (CFO) to ensure National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) are remitted on a timely basis.

The county government also pledged to clear a Sh300 million balance for the staff medical insurance cover by October 28, 2021 with another Sh392 million already paid for the same.

On promotions, the parties agreed that the Board commences issuing of re-designation and promotion letters within seven days from Thursday.

On delay of payment of salaries, acting County Secretary Mr Jarius Musumba was to write to the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) to be finalising their payroll and submitting it to the office of CFO by the fifteenth of every month.

"There will be no victimisation for staff participating in the ongoing workers' parade," reads in part the resolution letter signed by Mr Musumba, Board chairperson and KCGWU officials.

The parties further agreed to convene a meeting between the Union, NMS and City Hall on October 19, 2021 to discuss harmonisation of allowances and other NMS-led grievances.

Issues of staff promotions, re-designations of officers deployed in NMS, overtime payment, leave allowance payment, and historical injustices will be part of the agenda for the meeting.

They also resolved to have the Board and the Public Service Management sector to correct wrong designations of the newly-employed recruits by end of October, 2021.

Further, deductions of pay as you earn (PAYE) on salaries of newly-employed constables and firemen and women be reimbursed in the October 2021 payroll.

Regarding statutory deductions, it was resolved that the county government to pay gross salaries starting this month.

This will see Sh2 billion out of Sh4 billion supplementary budget by the county government be utilised to pay for statutory deductions with Sh1.2 billion going to Laptrust and Sh800 million to Lapfund.

"Thereafter payments to the two pension schemes will be done on a prorata basis with the CFO to be making

monthly remittances to reduce pending pension schemes debts," adds the letter.

 On uniform payment, the Board adopted the Unifom Policy which will apply only for staff currently working, however, staff who retired before the enactment of the policy will be paid as per the previous terms.

 On payment of off-days for security personnel and other affected staff, it was agreed that the affected staff writes to the respective chief officers requesting payment and attach relevant documents.

"County Secretary to give a directive to chief officers that recalling officers while on leave/off days and working overtime must be in writing," the letter added.