Three More Health Unions Down Tools As Doctors Strike Continues
Public Health Officers, Nutritionists and Pharmaceutical Technologists have announced the commencement of an indefinite strike beginning Tuesday, April 9 with planned peaceful demonstrations across the country.
The development came justa hours after Kindiki banned demonstration by workers
“We, the united bodies of the Kenya Environmental Health and Public Health Practitioners Union (KEHPHPU), the Kenya National Union of Pharmaceutical Technologists (KNUPT), and the Kenya Union of Nutritionists and Dieticians (KUNAD), with a heavy heart, announce the commencement of an indefinite strike action starting today, 9th April 2024″ the union officials said.
They regretted that their strike notice had been ignored.
” We provided a seven (7) day ultimatum to the Ministry of Health and County Governments to address our longstanding grievances. Regrettably, this period has lapsed without any substantive action or satisfactory response from the concerned authorities” they said.
On April 3, 2024, the Employment and Labour Relations Court ordered parties in the ongoing industrial dispute to engage in conciliation and negotiation proceedings within 14 days and thereafter file in court a memorandum of understanding on minimum service guarantees in public health institutions.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union (KMPDU) Tuesday rallied medical students and interns for nationwide protests.
Clinical officers and Healthcare workers hired by the government under the Universal Healthcare programme have also staged demonstrations demanding better terms.
The government insists it has no money to meet the medics’ salary demands.
