County government workers on Friday called off their planned strike following a consultative meeting with stakeholders.
The meeting brought together the Kenya County Government Workers Union (KCGWU), the County Public Service Board Consultative Forum, the Council of Governors, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, the State Department of Public Service, the State Department for Labour and Inter-governmental Relations Technical Committee.
The union said the meeting resolved that two multi-agency technical committees be constituted to address issues said by county government workers, in particular remuneration and remittances of statutory deductions.
The committee is to report back within 30 days.
“After deliberations, we have agreed to call off the strike to give dialogue a chance,” KCGWU secretary general Roba Duba said.
He said problems facing county workers have been on since the advent of devolution.
“Some people took on revolution reluctantly. We have tried even to seek a basic audience and it has not been easy,” he added.
County government workers were to down their tools from Tuesday after the top decision-making organ of the union ratified a countrywide strike.
KCGWU members include firemen, sewer men, garbage collectors, revenue clerks, parking attendants, Early Childhood Development Education teachers, Tvet instructors, enforcement officers, and mortuary and ambulance attendants.
The workers claim they have been unfairly discriminated against in the current salary adjustment that has only favoured their counterparts in the national government.
The state has in the last month given a pay rise to police officers, teachers as well as civil servants to avert strikes that threatened to stall government services.
The union further claimed their members had initially been selectively left out from the phase one salary adjustments, where all public servants were to get an increment of between seven to 10 per cent.
