Unions read mischief in TSC's membership verification ultimatum

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has issued a three-month notice to more than 288,000 tutors to confirm the union they belong to.

TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said validation would run until February 28, 2016. The commission will deactivate any unvalidated data from March 1.

Ms Macharia said the decision to carry out the exercise had been arrived at following complaints from teachers and the two unions — Kenya National Union of Teachers and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers — over membership poaching and other irregularities.

The directive is contained in a November 24 circular and is addressed to TSC county directors and stakeholders in education.

MISCHIEF IN ULTIMATUM

However, the unions read mischief in the ultimatum, saying it was meant to destabilise them.

“Teachers wishing to move from one union to another should observe the provisions of the law and complete union membership  forms  after resigning from  their current unions. They should submit completed forms to TSC,” Ms Macharia said.

She added that the commission was dealing with complaints raised by teachers on union membership.

“Teachers say they have never signed for any union membership yet the commission has effected recovery of dues from their pay. Some belong to a particular union but their dues are being remitted to a different one,” the TSC boss said.

FRAUD CLAIMS

She added that unions had also complained that forgery had been used to move members to rival unions.

Validation can be accessed at http://payslip.tsc.go.ke.

Kuppet Secretary-General Akelo Misori said TSC did not have the authority to recruit members for unions. He said the commission should have consulted the unions on the best way to handle the situation.

Knut Secretary-General Wilson Sossion said the timing for validation was suspect. “The circular is illegal and confirms our worst fears.”

The two unions get more than Sh2 billion annually as membership fee.

Knut collects about Sh1.6 billion per year while Kuppet with about 34,000 teachers gets Sh35 million per month and Sh425million every year.

Meanwhile, TSC has said it does not owe the unions any money.

TSC Head of Communication Kamotho Kihumba said the Commission did not deduct union dues in September, October and November “for well-known reasons”.

“It is therefore, insincere for anybody to claim that TSC is withholding money due to Knut or any other union as none was deducted,” he said.