The government yesterday moved to avert a looming civil servants’ strike, committing to implement the second phase of the 2021-2023 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that would see them get a pay rise.

Calling off a planned strike, Union of Civil Servants of Kenya (UCSK) secretary general Tom Odege said the government had vowed to keep its end of the bargain.

“I want to appeal to all civil servants that from today they should consider the CBA fully implemented and the anxiety which was building within the service should now cease,” Odege said.

He added: “Let them now be confident enough because whatever we agreed with the government has been given to us. And by the end of this month, we are confident all of them are going to get their pay back dated to July 1.”

The CBA had provided that the negotiated salary was to be implemented in two phases. The first covered the period between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024, while the second was to cover July 1, 2024 to June 2025.

The union, Odege said, was on the verge of calling for a strike after a seven-day notice issued to the government last week lapsed. He said civil servants had been angered by the government’s move to only consider a CBA reached with teachers and and not theirs.

“Before, we were not very happy because we thought it was bad for the government to discriminate against us. By [providing] money to teachers and leaving civil servants, who also signed a union CBA, was not in good taste,” the former Nyatike MP said.

“And that’s why we as a union for the last one week had to go out and give the government some notice of a strike if this one was not fully implemented.”

He urged civil servants to continue delivering services to Kenyans, adding that union officials will soon kick-start the process of entering a new CBA with the Public Service ministry.

“We will remain available to enter into fresh negotiations because this one is coming to an end by the end of June next year. So we expect the government to provide an environment which can enable us to start the engagement in that regard,” Odege stated.

Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi (pictured), with union officials, announced that the National Treasury had provided Sh1.5 billion for the ministry to implement the remaining phase of the CBA that came into effect on 1 July 2024.