Light At The End Of a Tunnel? Doctors’ Strike Called Off As KMPDU, Gov’t Ink Return-To-Work Formula! The 56 day Doctors’ strike has finally come to an end following a return-to-work agreement signed between the government and the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union (KMPDU).
This comes a few days after the Employment and Labour Relations Court issued an order for the government and the Union to create a feasible plan for returning staff to the workplace by Wednesday.
The judge set the deadline for Wednesday because KMPDU presented a document to the court on Tuesday that differed from what the government had. If KMPDU fails to meet this deadline, the court would have to consider the case.
Officials from the union officials from Government bodies namely the Ministry of Health and the Council of Governors (CoG) were holed up in a meeting for the better part of Tuesday night, in a bid to break the impasse.
In order to facilitate the talks, KMPDU Secretary General Dr. Davji Atellah had temporarily suspended the doctors’ nonviolent protests to an indefinite date.
The Doctors have been up in arms against the government’s refusal to post medical interns and as well as adhere to the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on the Doctors’ terms of engagement. The Doctors had since downed their tools and left their work stations since March 14.
