Nurses in Homa Bay County have issued a seven-day strike notice to the county government following a raft of grievances.
Kenya National Union of Nurses and Midwives (KNUNM) County Secretary Emadick Okeyo said they will not be on duty starting Wednesday next week if their grievances are not addressed.
Okeyo and the deputy chairperson, Brenda Peterson, accused the county government of failing to honour a return-to-work agreement which they signed in February.
They noted that amongst their grievances were delayed promotions as well as delayed remittance of statutory deductions.
Okeyo said at least 386 nurses should have been promoted by March this year.
They lamented that despite the signed agreement, no one has been promoted.
Okeyo also demanded that members whose contracts with the county government have come to an end should also get gratuity promptly.
He noted that those affected had their August and September 2022 salaries not paid and upto now the money has not been paid.
Okeyo said they have had perennial issues with remittance of critical statutory deductions particularly loans, insurance premiums, union dues, Social Health Authority (SHA) premiums among others
He said SHA deductions have not been remitted for the past two months.
“National Treasury announced that it does not owe money county governments, so we don’t understand why the remittances are not promptly disbursed relevant institutions.” Mr Okeyo emphasized.
“We will down tools next week Wednesday. Healthy services will be affected in all public health facilities including dispensaries,” he said.
Ms Peterson said nurses have been patient enough despite working under severe difficulties.
“We will do what we are known to do best when aggrieved. We will down tools until our demands are met,” the unionist declared.
Efforts to reach the health department leadership for a comment were futile.
By Melvin Otieno and Davis Langat
