KMPDU in court over SRC proposal to scrap non-practice allowance

The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has now dragged the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to court over its recent proposal to scrap the non-practice allowance.

This comes after KMPDU, close to a fortnight ago, slammed the Lyn Mengich-led commission over the move terming it as “retrogressive” and aimed at denying the doctors their “contractual earnings and remuneration unilaterally through a non-consultative means.”

KMPDU Secretary General Dr. Davji Atellah, in a supporting affidavit seen by Citizen Digital, said the non-practice allowance was introduced in order to compensate medics working in the public sector for the income they forego, hence putting them at par with their colleagues in the private sector.

According to Dr. Atellah, the non-practice allowance is fully contained in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed between the union and the government, through the Ministry of Health, on June 30, 2017.

He stated that the CBA’s term is set to expire soon, thereby setting the stage for a fresh round of negotiations.

Hence, he stated, SRC’s move to issue advisory on the allowance at this time is only a means of “setting the stage for a gridlock during the next phase of CBA negotiations by denying us the right to freely engage in collective bargaining…”

“I know of my own knowledge that even though the petitioner’s members are part of the public servants targeted by the advisory, the 1st respondent (SRC) neither sought our comment on the same nor shared the advisory with us for whatever it may have been worth contrary to Regulation 17(4)(b) of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (Remuneration and Benefits of State and Public Officers) Regulations, 2013 which enjoins the Commission to hear representations from interested parties before implementing such reviews,” stated Dr. Atellah.

“I know of my own knowledge that we only got to know about the advisory when some of our members saw stories about it doing rounds in print and social media.”

He added that: “…by haphazardly taking away the allowance in the manner that the 1st respondent (SRC) is proposing, the petitioner’s members will not only be prejudiced through reduction in remuneration but will also be arbitrarily deprived of property in the form of income contrary to article of 40(2)(a) of the Constitution.”

The KMPDU boss went ahead to state that, by not subjecting a proposal with such grave effects to a select group of people as the above mentioned to public participation, the salaries body contravened Article 10 of the Constitution.

He added that according to SRC’s own regulations on remuneration and benefits of public officers, the commission is only mandated to conduct reviews after every four years, which he stated is yet to lapse since the last one was conducted.

“…furthermore, whereas the Salaries and Remuneration Commission Act requires the commission to publish in the Kenya gazette and in daily newspapers a proposal for review of salaries and remuneration so as to invite public participation, we have not seen any notices published by the 1st respondent for public participation before issuing the impugned advisory,” Dr. Atellah noted.

“I also know that the 1st respondent did not conduct a market study before proposing the removal of the said allowance yet such a study is a pre-requisite for a review as provided under regulation 5 of the Commissions Regulations.”

The KMPDU Secretary General  opined that seeking to remove any part of the medics’ remunerations with the current harsh economic times is a backward move, opining that salary reviews should always be progressive instead.

“I know of my own knowledge that the purpose for which the Non-practice Allowance has been paid before still obtains to-date and that it is not true that circumstances have changed so as to justify its removal,” he wrote.

“I know that it has been the petitioner’s members’ legitimate expectation that they shall continue to earn the Non-practice Allowance for as long as they remain in public service so as to cushion them for what they would have earned had they remained in private practice. The petitioner therefore pleads legitimate expectation.”

Dr. Atellah also hit out at SRC for what he said was the “hurried manner” in which the commission intended to adopt the proposal on January 1, 2023 barely a month after publishing the advisory on November 25, 2022.