KMPDU rubbishes SRC proposal to abolish doctors’ allowances

The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has hit out at the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) over its proposal to abolish a slew of allowances for public officers, including doctors.

This comes after SRC, in a circular seen by Citizen Digital, sought to remove the sitting allowance for institutional and committee members, the taskforce allowance, as well as the non-practice allowance.

It is the commission’s proposed review of the non-practice allowance that has now put it at loggerheads with KMPDU, which has since termed the move as “retrogressive” and aimed at denying the doctors their “contractual earnings and remuneration unilaterally through a non-consultative means.”

SRC, in its proposal, noted that: “Payment of non-practice allowance was intended to facilitate attraction and retention of specific scarce, rare and critical professional skills in the public service. While the allowance served the purpose when it was first introduced, the situation has changed.”

“Over the years, the capacity for professional skills in the public service has progressively grown to fill the gap for which the non-practice allowance was payable. It is noted that when a professional chooses to accept a career in the public service, then it implies that the choice presents a better prospect for the affected officer than elsewhere in the economy.”

KMPDU has however rubbished this stating that the non-practice allowance was duly negotiated for between the employees and their employers and is rooted firmly in their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

The doctors’ union, in a press address on Saturday following a leadership consultative meeting in Naivasha, further slammed the Lyn Mengich-led commission for what it termed as an “unethical and colonial” practice to attempt to review remuneration backwards.

“From the onset, SRC is hereby notified that CBAs are contractually binding between employers and employees pursuant to ILO Conventions No. 98 and 87 read together with Kenyan Constitution 2010 Article 41 and relevant employment and labour legislative tools. It is also paramount to note that it is a national and global practice and procedure never to review remunerations backwards. It is unethical and colonial in nature,” said KMPDU Secretary General Dr. Davji Atellah.

“Non-Practice Allowance was initiated for purposes of incentive and compensation. The officers benefiting from this allowance are compensated for the loss of earnings they forego while actively practicing in the medical facilities; that is the rationale behind including the same in our CBA as a negotiable item, meaning it is part and parcel of doctors’ contractual terms and conditions of employment.”

The KMPDU boss also stated that abolishing the said allowance will only serve to affect the doctors’s standard of living and in turn affect their productivity, thereby negatively impacting public healthcare.

He further added that SRC does not have any mandate to abolish the said allowances since it was not party to the negotiations.

“Any stranger (party) who is not a signatory to the said negotiated, concluded and registered CBA does not have the rationale and or constitutional mandate to scrap/abolish such remuneration gains,” noted Dr. Atellah.

“Basic salary including all other allowances present a bare minimum standard of living of an employee and any unconstitutional attempt to reduce even a single component of the gross earning will directly suffocate the welfare of our members; it will also seriously injure the productivity and motivation of the entire workforce in the public which subsequently will translate to serious negative impact to the public health care.”

Dr. Atellah hence said KMPDU wholly rejects the proposal to abolish the non-practice allowance saying it is ill-intended and amounts to breach of employment contracts.

In a subsequent phone call with Citizen Digital, he went ahead to caution that doctors would abandon hospitals if the said proposal is adopted.

This coming days after the doctors’ suspended their previous strike notice after holding talks with the government through the Council of Governors (CoG) and the Ministry of Health (MoH).

“We’re warning SRC that the purported thought that they want to remove the allowances that were negotiated for doctors in this country will not go down well. We will not give a notice or anything, but if they try we will just leave for them hospitals to offer the services,” said the KMPDU Secretary General.

“These allowances were negotiated as part of the CBA which is nationally recognized. This is not a threat, we’re giving SRC a warning that they should dare not touch any of the negotiated agreements of the union with the employers.”