Health care workers from the six Coast Counties on Thursday staged a peaceful protest in Kwale county to pressure the government to implement the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The workers marched to the Kwale governor’s office, the employment board office and the county assembly to present their grievances.
Led by the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) Kwale Chairperson Tobias Onyango, the workers under the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) scheme have called on the government to employ them on permanent contracts.
“We are calling on the government to hear our plea and sort the issues we have raised, we have been on strike for 3 weeks,” said Tobias.
The workers say initially they signed 3 year contracts with the promise of being employed under permanent and pensionable.
They also complained about poor pay, accusing their employers of not submitting their NSSF deductions.
They are also demanding that the central government pay them their gratitudes totalling to between 700 – 900 thousand shillings per worker, money they are owed for over 5 years.
Health care workers under the UHC programme have been on strike for the past 3 weeks.