A total of Sh5.3 billion is at the centre of the stalemate between the government and public university lecturers, a situation that has paralysed learning.
Education Cabinet Secretary, Julius Migos Ogamba, said the amount is borne from differences in simulations of salary increments agreed in a return-to-work formula signed between the government and the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) last month.
The formula agreed on a pay rise of seven to 10 per cent, he said.
Mr Ogamba told senators on Wednesday that according to the simulation by the ministry, the total amount due to lecturers is Sh4.3 billion.
He, however, added that a simulation by the union puts the amount at Sh9.76 billion.
Later in the afternoon, the CS met Uasu officials. A team set up earlier to negotiate with the striking dons on behalf of the government failed in the mission.
“The figure the government has against the number by Uasu differs by almost Sh5 billion. That is the discussion we are having to find the reasons for the difference,” Mr Ogamba told the Senate.
The minister told the lawmakers that there is a deficit in the budget against what is required across ministries because of the challenges brought by the withdrawal of the Finance Bill, 2024.
The lecturers resumed work boycott on Tuesday after issuing a seven-day notice last week when they failed to agree with the government on the implementation of the return-to-work formula signed in late September.
It is the second strike by the university teachers in under two months following the suspension of the other on September 26.
According to documents seen by the Daily Nation, there was to be a basic salary increment of seven per cent for job grades 13 to 15 and 10 per cent for job grades 10 to 12.
The dons are to have an annual pay increment computed at four per cent of the basic salary for the two years of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) cycle that began on July 1, 2023.
The parties agreed that the retirement age for graduate assistants, tutorial fellows and assistant lecturers be 70 while senior lecturers, associate professors and professors retire at 74.
According to tabulations by a joint committee tasked with developing salary scales for the CBA covering 2021 to 2025 for public university employees, the implementation of the agreement requires Sh9.76 billion, more than double the amount needed for the increment backdated by two years.
In scenario one of the tabulations, the basic salary would account for Sh3.15 billion in the financial year ending June 30, 2024, and Sh4.97 billion in the subsequent year.
Twenty per cent pension component would see Sh631.4 million expended in the first fiscal year and Sh985.19 million the following year, documents show.
In scenario two, the number would be Sh9.67 billion, where figures for the financial year ending June 30, 2024, remain the same but the basic salary component falls by Sh70.52 million.
It would see an increment of Sh6.45 billion as the basic pay component for seven and 10 per cent adjustments and Sh1.68 billion for the four per cent increment for a total of Sh8.1 billion, with the pension part gobbling Sh1.62 billion.
The joint committee comprised representatives of the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum, the Federation of Kenya Employers and the three university Unions – Uasu, the Kenya Universities Staff Union and the Kenya Union of Domestic Hotels Educational Institutions Hospitals and Allied Workers.
The unions had called a general strike last month over delayed negotiations and the implementation of the pay deals.
It resulted in the formation of an inter-ministerial committee, leading to the signing of the return-to-work formula on September 26.
“As a condition for calling off the strike, the employer was to immediately pay the basic monthly salary at the rates advised by the government via the inter-ministerial committee where for Grades 13A, 14A and 15A the increment was at seven per cent and 10 per cent for Grades 10A, 11A and 12A,” reads the document.
