A Kenyan court has directed the government to harmonise the pay of nurses employed on contract during the Covid-19 pandemic under the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) programme with those of permanent and pensionable staff.
Justice Stella Rutto, in a ruling by the Employment and Labour Relations Court, said the Ministry of Health and the Public Service Commission (PSC) had a legal duty to apply the principle of “equal pay for equal work.”
The ruling follows President William Ruto’s announcement that UHC nurses would begin permanent employment this month.
The judgment was issued in response to a petition filed by the Kenya National Union of Nurses in 2024. Justice Rutto noted that the government agencies were obliged to ensure fairness even if nurses had initially agreed to less favourable contract terms.
Court records indicate that the PSC offered 2,500 UHC nurses a monthly salary of Sh50,000 for diploma holders and Sh40,000 for certificate holders.
This compares sharply with permanent staff earning Sh100,000 to Sh120,000 for diploma holders and Sh80,000 for certificate holders.
The court also highlighted that UHC nurses had been excluded from benefits such as nursing service, commuter, hardship, health risk, leave, and uniform allowances. Justice Rutto described the disparity as a violation of workers’ rights under Article 27(5) of the Constitution and Section 5(3) of the Employment Act.
“The court finds that the respondents (Ministry of Health and PSC) have subjected the claimant’s members to pay discrimination as they have failed to demonstrate non-discriminatory reasons and justify the pay disparity,” she said.
“The remuneration ought to be equal for the staff in the same category performing the same work, despite their terms of engagement. Indeed, the respondents herein have not suggested or indicated that the work performed by the staff under the UHC programme is not of the same value as that performed by staff on permanent and pensionable terms.”
The Health Ministry, PSC, Council of Governors (CoG), and National Treasury had opposed the case.
The ministry argued that the PSC’s circular of August 3, 2021, did not permit transferring short-term programme staff into permanent positions due to funding constraints.
PSC added that it could not legally approve absorption of UHC nurses by counties, as any such directive would not be binding on county governments.
The CoG maintained that the nurses were aware of their contract terms at the time of employment and that permanent absorption could only occur after national government funding was allocated.