Nairobi Star (Nairobi)
John Muchangi
3 December 2011
Nurses have cancelled their next week’s strike after receiving a 25 per cent salary increase. However, doctors said they will go ahead with their strike on Monday.
The nurses hammered their deal after a half-day meeting with Medical Services minister and other ministry officials at Afya House in Nairobi yesterday. “The agreed increment will be implemented across board beginning July 2012,” said National Nurses Association chairman Luke Kodambo.
The nurses had said they will join the strike by doctors on Wednesday if their basic salary and various allowances are not reviewed. Kodambo said nurses requested to negotiate separately from the doctors, who agreed and left the negotiation room yesterday. The government said health workers in job group G would now earn a minimum basic pay of Sh16,692, up from the current Sh13, 733. The highest paid employee in that group will earn Sh20,289, up from the current Sh17,527.
In Job Group M, salaries were raised from a minimum of Sh35,275 to Sh40,835 while the maximum pay was raised from Sh42,877 to Sh49,386. “There was no response on the proposed annual salaries increment of 10 per cent to match the rate of inflation,” said Kodambo, who is also spokesman for the Kenya Health Professional Society.
All KPHS members will enjoy the new rates. The umbrella team includes nurses, lab technicians, clinical officers, pharmacists, physiotherapists, radiographers, occupational therapists, nutritionists and records officers, among others.
Separately, the doctors spokesman Boniface Chitayi said they have reached no agreement with the ministry and will still go on strike as planned. Their representative, the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, is demanding a 300 per cent pay hike.
Yesterday, the nurses also secured a house allowance but Nyong’o said they were waiting for the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics to conduct a housing survey and provide the market rent indices for all market centres in the country. The government also reinstated the extraneous allowance of Sh15,000, which was withdrawn in 2005.
Nurses in extreme hardship areas will receive an allowance of Sh10,000 every month while those in areas considered moderate will get Sh5,000. KPHS members currently not receiving risk allowances will start to be paid in January.
Nurses will also get commuter allowance and uniform allowances. They will also receive emergency call allowances of between Sh5,000 and Sh10, 000 every month. The ministry said it will further recruit 607 technicians and nutritionists, and a total of 2,300 nursing offices and lab technologists.
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