A fresh crisis looms in public universities as they struggle to pay staff salaries with the University Academic Staff Union (Uasu) now demanding that the government takes over the payroll of the more than 30,000 academic staff.
Lecturers at the Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) began a strike on Wednesday, becoming the second institution of higher learning to go on strike within a week after academic staff downed tools last week.
Uasu National Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga urged the government to pay university workers directly from the Exchequer as opposed to relying on tuition fees and capitation grants from the government.
Dr Wasonga said the move will cure payroll challenges facing the public universities and ensure the capitation sent to the institutions of higher learning are only used for operations and maintenance.
Speaking during the launch of the strike at TUM, Dr Wasonga said most universities are struggling to pay their staff due to the funding model and parents not paying fees.
He said Technical University of Kenya, TUM, Moi University and Tom Mboya University are struggling to pay lecturers' salaries.
Dr Wasonga said that TUM is yet to pay staff salaries as per their 2021-2025 collective bargaining agreement.
“Last Thursday, the institution paid its staff according to the previous agreement, and on Monday they paid the remaining amount. The staff doesn’t want two payslips, they want one payslip,” said Dr Wasonga.
He said that in 2020, TUM failed to pay its staff commuter allowance for two months.
“I will not leave this institution until the funds are wired into their accounts,” said Dr Wasonga.
The Uasu boss said in the 2017/2021 CBA, the union negotiated an increment of allowances.
“But they are now claiming that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission has stopped them from implementing it instead retain old rates. We won’t agree,” said Dr Wasonga.
The union leader urged TUM Vice Chancellor Prof Laila Abubakar to negotiate with local Uasu members.
“Why can’t you talk to your staff? What are you scared of? Because once I land in any institution, the only language I know is a strike. Whenever you see me somewhere, you should know things are thick,” he added.
Dr Wasonga said next week he will pitch camp at Tom Mboya University to launch another strike, then Moi University and TUK because they are yet to pay our members their January salaries.
“We can end this issue by the government taking fully the payroll of university workers, they are only 30,000. The State can pay university workers directly from the Exchequer as they do for civil servants, including teachers. Capitation can then be sent to institutions to use for operations and maintenance,” he added.
Dr Wasonga said university workers are being subjected to embarrassment every month and they are forced to take industrial action to be paid their salaries.
“We are not going to allow teaching staff to be paid from fees paid by the students. And by the way, the students are not paying fees because the State came up with a new funding model which was quashed by the courts. The old model, Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) failed because of the State,” he said, noting that DUC was previously used to finance universities.
Dr Wasonga said DUC was supposed to be funded at 80 per cent, however, it was being funded at 46 per cent.
“Where do they want the universities to get money from? Over and above, we must solve university challenges so that students can go to class. We are surviving without salaries by the grace of God,” added Dr Wasonga.
