Massive layoffs looming at Egerton University as Debt Escalates to Sh9 Billion.
As the cash-strapped Egerton University prepares to lay off hundreds of employees, it has come to light that the Njoro campus loses approximately 100 employees annually.
The institution is experiencing its toughest financial circumstances and, in staff to alleviate its financial crisis, has announced a drastic job reduction that will affect approximately 1,500 employees.
The financial state of the 83-year-old institution has left it unable to manage its escalating pay bill of more than Sh200 million and growing debt of Sh9 billion.
The message of retrenchment has been met with a variety of responses, with staff denouncing the timing and branding it as a “unwarranted display of poor management at the university.”
“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 Resources official at the institution reported that the staff of employees at Egerton University has decreased to approximately 1,500 from 2,000 just five years ago.
Meanwhile, the Egerton Chapter of the University Academic Staff Union (UASU) characterized the forthcoming layoffs as “ill-timed, illogical, and senseless.”
According to the union, senior academic staff are leaving in droves for greener pastures.
Grace Kibue, secretary of the UASU Egerton Chapter, explains, “This generates a massive staff deficit, putting several university programs at imminent risk of collapse.”
The union warned that implementing the university’s retrenchment plan could be counterproductive.
Dr. Kibue stated, “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.“
The union also said that the mass layoffs could result in a scarcity of personnel and interrupt certain programs.
"Reductions in force will not improve the staff, as the personnel who have left due to mass resignations, death, and natural attrition have not been replaced,” stated Dr. Kibue.
In a bid to reclaim the university’s former glory, the union wants the university council to focus on methods to salvage the institution from its financial mess rather than layoffs.
“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 claimed that it will closely monitor the retrenchment process to guarantee compliance with labor regulations.
The financially challenged institution has imposed layoffs because it cannot pay its employees’ salaries.
The school in Njoro notified all staff on December 21 that redundancies will be implemented across all cadres.
The notice, issued by Prof. Richard Mulwa, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Administration, Planning, and Development, stated that the decision was made to control the university’s pay cost and “provide greater efficiency in fulfilling the university’s mission to its employees and customers.”
Massive layoffs looming at Egerton University as Debt Escalates to Sh9 Billion.
