Court Halts Egerton University From Deducting Salaries Of UASU Members
A Nakuru court has temporarily halted Egerton University from deducting salaries from staff members of the University Academic Staff Union (UASU) as punishment for participating in a strike last year.
The university allegedly deducted UASU members’ salaries during a three-month strike that began on November 15. Outraged, the union filed a lawsuit against the university, its vice-chancellor, and its council, seeking an injunction to stop the salary deductions.
The union told Employment and Labour Relations Court Justice David Nderitu that the university had illegally deducted significant amounts of money from its members’ salaries, causing them financial hardship in the face of current economic hardships.
“The respondents are recovering salaries that had been paid to some of the members contrary to the agreed return formula,” the union’s secretary Grace Kibue said.
Dr. Kibue stated that the union has called its members to an industrial strike, effectively withdrawing its labor from the university, effective November 15, 2021.
She claimed they fled because the university refused to honor November 30, 2020, Return to Work Formula (RTWF) and failed to implement a nationally negotiated CBA (2017-2021).
Kibue stated that on March 4, 2022, the union, national office, and university signed the RTWF to end the strike. The formula would be declared the court’s order.
However, she claimed that the university implemented the agreement in a way that was financially detrimental and detrimental to the members’ gross monthly salaries.
“In view of the monthly deferred payment, the respondents broke the agreement signed as a RTWF,” read the application filed in court.
On Monday, Justice Nderitu restrained the university from further adjusting or deferring members’ salaries, reducing the gross monthly pay to what it was on November 31, 2021.
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“Pending hearing and determination of the application, inter parties, an order is issued restraining the respondents from reducing the gross monthly pay to claimant’s members,” orders Justice Nderitu.
He ruled that the orders will take effect with the pay period ending in May 2022.
