The Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) on Thursday, March 26, issued a seven-day strike notice to the County Government of Meru.
KNUN accused the Meru government of failing to pay nurses their February salaries over three weeks since the payments were due.
"The union has learnt with disappointment that the County Government has not paid nurses their salary for the month of February 2020.
"Employment Act section 18.2(c) provides for when the salary is deemed to be due- a provision your office has grossly violated and which is unacceptable," read part of the statement.
The union now wants members to be paid both the February and March salaries by April 3, 2020.
Further, the union accused the County Government of being reluctant in remitting statutory deductions like Union dues, NHIF, NSSF and Bank loans, leading to accrued interest.
The organization added that the county government was exposing nurses to untold sufferings.
"Kindly note that services will remain withdrawn until they are fully paid. We will appreciate if you address the issue urgently owing to the fact that our country is fighting against the pandemic disease which play a critical role," an excerpt of the statement read.
The warning comes almost a week after Kenya National Union of Nurses secretary-general Seth Panyako stated that nurses needed extra protection while working.
“If this virus starts hitting us hard, understaffed hospitals are going to witness an overwhelming number of patients, extremely long hours for medical staff and shortage of protective gear, leaving our nurses under-protected, overworked, and increasingly vulnerable,” he warned.
Panyako added that he had warned nurses to only attend to patients only if they had protective gear.
"If the government does not provide the equipment required, I don’t see why our nurses should put their lives at risk.” he concluded.
