As the cash-strapped Egerton University prepares to retrench hundreds of workers, it is now emerging that the Njoro-based campus loses about 100 staff annually.
The institution is undergoing its worst financial times and in a bid to ease its financial distress, it has announced a radical job cut that will affect about 1,500 staff.
The 83-year-old institution’s financial condition has left it struggling to manage its ballooning wage bill of more than Sh200 million and a growing debt of Sh9 billion.
“On average, about 100 staff retire per year due to natural attrition as others seek greener pastures and therefore there is no need for this hurriedly thought retrenchment by a rudderless and failed management that has no idea how to tackle the financial crisis,” said a lecturer.
A senior Human Resource official at the institution said that Egerton university staff has reduced to about 1,500 down from 2,000 just five years ago.
Meanwhile, University Academic Staff Union (UASU) Egerton Chapter described the impending job cuts as, “ill-timed, illogical and irrational.”
The union said that senior academic staff have left and continue leaving in droves for greener pastures.
“This creates a huge staff deficit with some university programmes now facing the threat of imminent collapse,” said Grace Kibue, UASU Egerton Chapter Secretary.
The union warned that the implementation of the retrenchment plan could be counterproductive for the university.
“The cost of redundancy is much higher than paying all the money owed to the workers in deferred salaries; which the court has since declared unlawful and unconstitutional,” said Dr Kibue.
The union further stated that the mass sacking could lead to a staff shortage and disrupt some of the programmes.
“Redundancies will not help matters because staff who have left through mass resignations, death and natural attrition have not been replaced,” said Dr Kibue.
The union wants the university council to focus on ways to salvage the institution from its financial mess instead of layoffs in a bid to regain the university’s lost glory.
“The University Council should avoid diversionary tactics and direct its energy in deploying all means possible to raise money in order to redeem workers’ dignity and restore Egerton to its once-coveted premier agricultural institution status,” said the union statement.
The union stated that it will closely monitor the retrenchment process to ensure it is conducted “within the strict confines of labour laws.”
The financially troubled institution has declared staff redundancies as it has not been able to pay its staff salaries.
The Njoro-based campus declared redundancies across all cadres in a notice to all staff on December 21.
The notice signed by Prof Richard Mulwa the Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor Administration, Planning and Development said the decision was aimed at managing the wage bill and “bring more efficiency in delivering the university’s mandate to its employees and customers.”
