Court warns universities against delaying lecturers' salaries

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The Employment and Labour Relations Court has warned universities against delaying or denying lecturers’ salaries, on the pretext that they are underfunded by the government.

Judge James Rika expressed his dissatisfaction that many cases, including three he cited, had been filed by aggrieved lecturers against their respective universities over unpaid remuneration.

He said the court was concerned that whenever these cases are filed, the standard reasons the universities give for delaying or denying payment had been underfunding of universities.

The judge said that faced with such underfunding and financial constraints, universities ought to engage their unhappy lecturers constructively by making reasonable payment plans.

“Universities must plan themselves, instead of mounting spirited and oftentimes technical objections and stonewalling on the merit of these payments,” the judge directed.

According to Rika, honest universities must undertake to clear any issues that may end up delaying salaries to lecturers, to avoid unnecessary court processes that take years.

The judge made the utterances when he awarded Eunice Waruguru Sh1.08 million in unpaid dues after she worked as a part-time lecturer at Laikipia University.

Through her Lawyer Kamau Ngigi, Waruguru moved to court in 2024 to seek its assistance to be paid her dues.

In response, the university claimed that she was paid all her dues but, in the event that she was not, it was perhaps because she did not submit all her claim forms.

In his ruling, Rika said that the court was satisfied that Waruguru had established her claim for the Sh1.08 million, to the required standard.

“The claimant (Waruguru) was clear in her pleadings and evidence. The respondent (university) must honour its contractual obligations to her,” ruled Judge Rika.

“I direct that the respondent shall pay to the claimant her  contracted lecturing dues, as tabulated in the Claim, at Sh1.08 million,” he added.

He also awarded Waruguru the cost of her claim and ruled that interest would be granted at court rate, effective from the date of the Judgment, until payment in full.

The judge called out the university management for being dishonest and conjuring up unjustified reasons to delay and deny Waruguru payments she was entitled to.

He took note that the management, through Dr Hezron Nyamwega, the Registrar, conceded that Waruguru was a part-time lecturer and was to be remunerated hourly.

“Records showed that payments would be paid after submission of grades and once grades were issued, it signified that teaching took place, with no need for further enquiry to justify payment,” the judge ruled.

He stressed that there was no doubt that Waruguru taught and graded her students.

He dismissed claims by Nyamwega that some of her documents were mixed-up, ruling that he did not provide evidence of any missing grades from Waruguru’s units.

He also ruled that there was no evidence of communication from the university to Waruguru, which alerted her of the alleged omitted documents from her claims and required her to clear the mix-up.

 “There was no report from the claimant’s faculty Dean that any grades were missing. Students she taught graduated, and Nyamwega told the court that once grades were submitted, payments were made,” noted Rika.

Further, he said that if the university management was honest, they would have asked Waruguru to urgently assist in clearing the mix-up, and in availing missing documents, to facilitate the settlement.