TSC wants new salary deal with teachers

The Teachers Service Commission has called for fresh talks with teachers over the basic salary increase stalemate.

The commission yesterday told Court of Appeal judges Mohammed Warsame, Sankale ole Kantai and Jamila Mohammed that they are ready to engage teachers through their two unions, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education (Kuppet).

Lawyers Stella Rutto and Cavin Anyuor for TSC said that the judgment by Employment and Labour Relations Court Judge Nduma Nderi on June 30, directing the government to increase the basic salary of teachers by between 50 and 60 per cent over a four year period was untenable because the Government did not make a provision for the pay raises in the last Budget.

Judge Nderi had ordered that the pay raises be effected between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2017. If TSC had accepted the order, it would have given over 250,000 teachers a salary increment of between 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent each year for the four years.

The judge had directed the Government to enforce the court order by July 30 but TSC has filed an appeal against the ruling.

Ms Rutto said that as a result of the judgment, the Government is in arrears amounting to Sh37 billion which is to be paid to the teachers for the period between July 1, 2013 to July 30, 2015. The Government has nine days to comply with the order, but Ms Rutto said it lacks the money it has been ordered to pay.

“We are, therefore, requesting that the order should be suspended and we be allowed to engage in renewed negotiations over the basic pay increase,” Ms Rutto told the Court of Appeal.

And Mr Anyuor said a job evaluation was ongoing that would affect all public servants, including teachers. The evaluation is being carried out by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) and is expected to resolve the basic pay dispute.

Mr Anyuor urged the court to lift the orders directing the state to pay the new salaries and that the SRC be allowed to complete the job evaluation. This way, he said, the outcome of the renewed negotiations by the parties will be acceptable to all stakeholders including the National Treasury, SRC, TSC and the teachers.

Two other lawyers, Mr Pheroze Nowrojee and Mr Paul Nyamodi, who were representing the SRC, said Justice Nderi erred when he failed to recognise that the salaries team was the institution empowered by the Constitution to review the salaries of public servants.

“The job evaluation was started about four months ago and may take long but we can assure the teachers that their salaries will be reviewed at the end of the exercise,” he said.

At the same time, State Counsel Wanjiku Mbiyu said that the Government will be required to raise Sh334 billion to meet the salary increase demand for all public servants because the same increase will have to be implemented across the public service.

However, Mr Paul Muite, representing Knut, opposed the request to have the SRC review teachers’ salary. He said it was only the TSC which is mandated under the Constitution to perform such a role.

His Kuppet counterpart, Ms Judith Guserwa, also opposed the application by TSC. She said there were only eight days remaining for the Government to abide by the court order and urged the Supreme Court not to grant the orders stopping TSC from paying.

The teachers’ unions will be making their case ton Thursday.