Nurses strike on Monday looms as the Ministry of health fails to agree on the allowance remuneration formula and nurses protection in the wake of COVID-19.
The nurses have been accusing the counties and the MoH citing poor working conditions during COVID-19.
The Kenya National Union of Nurses Secretary-General Dr Seth Panyako said that both essential and frontline workers are facing severe delays in implementation of the presidential directive to pay risk allowances which should be backdated to April 2020.
Other payments include responsibility allowances and insurance covers which the nurses say lead to serious disheartenment.
"From Monday it will not be business as usual in this country. You can't work when you don't have food, you have children in the house and you can't pay your rent," Panyako said.
Speaking in Nairobi, Dr Panyako additional wants all health care workers particularly those in Nyanza and Western regions to be tested saying they were supplied with substandard PPEs.
He said nurses from Monday won't be going to work without N95 masks.
He added that there are no isolation facilities in the country to cater to the infected health workers despite the government promises.
"WHO has said that this virus is a work injury hazard hence treatment of all frontline health workers should be free," he added.
The county workers union Secretary-General Roba Duba noted that so far workers are yet to receive their June and July salaries.
"There is a big crisis. We can no longer exercise any more resilience. Provision of quality PPEs is mandatory. Health care workers need physical protection because they are killed from and on their way to work," Roba said.
The nurses have been accusing the counties and the MoH citing poor working conditions during COVID-19.
The Kenya National Union of Nurses Secretary-General Dr Seth Panyako said that both essential and frontline workers are facing severe delays in implementation of the presidential directive to pay risk allowances which should be backdated to April 2020.
Other payments include responsibility allowances and insurance covers which the nurses say lead to serious disheartenment.
"From Monday it will not be business as usual in this country. You can't work when you don't have food, you have children in the house and you can't pay your rent," Panyako said.
Speaking in Nairobi, Dr Panyako additional wants all health care workers particularly those in Nyanza and Western regions to be tested saying they were supplied with substandard PPEs.
He said nurses from Monday won't be going to work without N95 masks.
He added that there are no isolation facilities in the country to cater to the infected health workers despite the government promises.
"WHO has said that this virus is a work injury hazard hence treatment of all frontline health workers should be free," he added.
The county workers union Secretary-General Roba Duba noted that so far workers are yet to receive their June and July salaries.
"There is a big crisis. We can no longer exercise any more resilience. Provision of quality PPEs is mandatory. Health care workers need physical protection because they are killed from and on their way to work," Roba said.
Post a Comment
What is your say on this