Striking nurses march along Uhuru Highway in Nairobi in this July 17, 2017 photo. The Employment and Labour Relations Court has declared their strike illegal. [Photo|nation]
Lady Justice Hellen Wasilwa of the Employment and Labour Relations Court on Friday declared the on-going nurses' strike illegal and ordered the Kenya National Union of Nurses (Knun) officials to terminate the strike.
The judge declared the strike illegal on the basis that the Knun officials failed to issue a strike notice to the Cabinet Secretaries for Labour and Health as is required under the Labour laws. She also ordered Knun officials to “desist from interfering with the smooth running of health care services through declaration of illegal strikes.”
Knun had defended itself saying that they called the strike based on the notice they had issued in last year November, which they alleged had only been suspended.
Governors had on Thursday threatened to fire the striking nurses should they fail to resume their duties by September 8. The governors said that they would hire new nurses on a contract basis should the current ones not resume their duties after September 8.There are over 25,000 nurses in the public hospitals.
The nurses had gone on strike on December 5 last year. They want their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to be harmonised. The strike was called off on December 14, after a negotiated return-to-work agreement was signed by their officials.
Knun national chairman John Bii went to court because the union’s executive committee side-lined him in calling on the strike. He regretted that the officials called the strike on when negotiations were ongoing. The Ministry of Health joined Mr Biiy’s application seeking to have the court declare the strike illegal so that nurses can resume work.