Clinicians have suspended their nationwide strike that was supposed to kick off on Thursday to allow for more talks and negotiations.
The Kenya Union of Clinical Officers SG George Gibore said the Health Ministry and the Council of Governors committed to table a counteroffer before October 8.
The move comes barely 24 hours after nurses withdrew from the strike.
The unions had issued a joint strike notice on August 20 accusing the government of lacking the commitment to solving the stalemate, leading to the talks to collapse.
Other unions that had threatened to down their tools include the Kenya Health Professionals Society, the Kenya National Union of Laboratory Officers, the Kenya National Union of Pharmaceutical Technologists and the Kenya Union of Dieticians.
“The Union wishes to acknowledge some responsiveness by some counties as initiated by the CoG, the commitment by Ministry of Health and CoG to give a counteroffer by October 8, 2020,” Gibore said.
“The purpose of this letter, therefore, is to suspend the strike that was set to begin on 10th September 2020 for the next one month ending on October 9, 2020, when we shall give further directives.”
The union has thus directed its members to continue offering services in their various stations of work.
Gibore, however, noted that the suspension only applies to the national joint HCW strike notice and does not apply in any case to county/branch-based strike, both ongoing and forthcoming such as in Nairobi and Tana River among others.
On Wednesday, the Kenya Union of Nurses SG Seth Panyako in a letter dated September 9 and copied to all the union branch officials, stated the decision was to allow more time for the ongoing negotiations and cancellation process.
The suspension lapses on October 1.
“By copy of this letter, the union branch officials are hereby notified and requested to inform our members to continue offering services,” Panyako said.
Among the demands, they want health care workers who are pregnant, elderly above 55 years and those with preexisting medical conditions to be excluded from active duty.
Further, they want all contractual engagements terms in the health sector to be converted to permanent and pensionable terms to ensure they are remunerated equally with their colleagues on permanent and pensionable terms.
They are also demanding for reinstatement of NHIF comprehensives Civil Servant Medical Scheme with immediate effect, and quality Personal Protective Equipment while on duty.