Union wants ministry to harmonise UHC staff pay

Environmental and Public Health officers are now calling on the Ministry of Health to harmonise salaries for the Universal Health Coverage workers before transferring their payroll to the counties.

This they say should be done according to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission. Speaking on Sunday in Garissa, Health CS Aden Duale said starting July 1, all UHC workers will be paid by their counties according to their contracts.

The CS further noted that the ministry lacked enough money to hire them on permanent and pensionable terms noting that only Sh3.5 billion was available for contracts.

However, speaking during a meeting with public health officers from Garissa the Kenya Environmental Health and Public Health Practitioners Union national general secretary Brown Ashira said the government had enough time to allocate money for nurses’ absorption.

Ashira said while the budget process is parliamentary, ministries also play a key role by presenting the budget estimates for key projects or programmes.

The SG argued that the Cabinet Secretary should first harmonise the salaries, absorb them into permanent and pensionable terms noting that transferring payroll to the counties without proper procedure would negatively affect the workers.

“The UHC workers were first given a contract for three years, and then it was renewed for another two years to facilitate the absorption into permanent and pensionable terms by looking for money to allocate to them,” Ashira said.

“As a union, we do not support transferring our colleagues’ payroll to counties because we know what happens there. There is a lot of clannism, nepotism and corruption. Without proper harmonisation of the salaries according to the SRC, our colleagues will suffer,” he added.

KEHPHPU national vice chairperson Juma Mahero called on the Health ministry to ensure that first, necessary resources are transferred to counties before they send the UHC workers.

“We are telling the CS to first transfer resources before transferring the payroll. You cannot transfer people and then resources later, how will they be paid or promoted when their records are with the national government?” Mahero paused.