Inter-Public Universities Councils’ Consultative Forum Secretary Prof Daniel Mugendi.
The managements of public universities on Monday, November 11 2024, issued a notice of withdrawal of the contentious return-to-work formula they signed with lecturers before retracting after less than one hour.
The notice was signed by Prof Daniel Mugendi who is the secretary of the Inter-Public Universities Councils’ Consultative Forum (IPUCCF). In the notice to the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu), he accused the union of a breach of the agreement by refusing to resume duties.
Uasu maintains that it is the employer that has not kept their part of the bargain.
“In response to this fundamental breach, IPUCCF hereby exercises its right to rescind the return-to-work formula and considers the agreement terminated. Thus, this action effectively restores both parties to their original positions prior to the signing of the return-to-work formula on September 26 2024. Accordingly, please take this as a formal notification that IPUCCF deems the return-to-work formula terminated with all the related terms and obligations as null and void,” Prof Mugendi said in the letter.
However, he confirmed to Nation.Africa that the notice had been withdrawn at 4.00 pm. He did not give reasons for the withdrawal. The secretary general of Uasu Constantine Wasonga confirmed that he had received both the notice and its withdrawal.
The IPUCCF and Uasu are scheduled to appear before the Committee on Education of the National Assembly on Tuesday, November 12, 2024, over the dispute that has paralysed learning in public universities.
The bone of contention has been the payment of salary arrears owed to the lecturers and pay raise. After signing the deal to end the strike, the parties agreed to form a committee to work out simulations of how the dons would benefit. The team retreated to Machakos University for three days where they came up with the tabulations.
In addition to the implementation of the 2021 – 2025 collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the return-to-work formula agreed on a salary increment ranging from seven to 10 per cent. The simulation done by the committee puts the total cost at Sh9.76 billion.
However, according to a simulation by the Ministry of Education, the total figure due to lecturers totals Sh4.3 billion. It is this offer that Uasu rejected and called on its members to stay away from the lecture halls.
According to the agreement, lecturers in job grades 13 to 15 are to get a basic salary increment of seven per cent while those in job grades 10 to 12 are due for a 10 per cent increment. They will also benefit from an automatic annual increment computed at four percent of the basic salary for the two years of the CBA cycle that began on July 1, 2023.
As part of the deal, the university workers will benefit from an automatic annual increment computed at four percent of the basic salary for the two years of the CBA cycle beginning July 1, 2023.
