Students at the Technical University of Mombasa can now
heave a sigh of relief after the strike by lecturers and other workers was
called off on Wednesday.
This follows a two-week go-slow that turned into a full-blown strike. The striking lecturers and workers downed their tools over
unresolved financial issues.
They were protesting
against pay, untimely and sometimes non-remittance of statutory
deductions, payment of a two-month unpaid commuter allowance of 2020, full
implementation of the 2017-2021 local Collective Bargaining Agreement, among
other issues.
“All that we want is
a pay slip that reflects what we earn. We want a pay slip that we can use with
various financial institutions to secure ourselves financial
gains,” Universities Academic Staff Union
TUM chapter secretary Prof Ochieng Odalo had said earlier.
“We want a pay slip
that we can stand with and say truly our CBA 2021-2025 is being recognised. We
can’t be paid like omena vendors.”
After a six-hour negotiation with the university management,
some white smoke was seen and the strike was called off late Wednesday evening.
“We have agreed to suspend the strike after we came to an
agreement on several matters,” the Kenya University Staff Union TUM branch
chair Kassim Ziro said.
The university management agreed to increase the staff
salaries starting at the end of the month.
The management also
agreed to remit all the statutory deductions owed to the various institutions
by the end of the week.
“The management has
also agreed to pay all workers their two months’ commuter allowance that was
deducted from their pay slips in 2020 during Covid-19. However, this money will
be paid in July this year,” Ziro said.
The will complete negotiations and implementation of the
2017-2021 internal CBA in four months’ time.
“They also agreed to bring the budget to the negotiations,”
Ziro said.
Students had condemned the manner