TSC strikes back at teachers with pay cut as nationwide boycott intensifies

Pupils at Ndurarua Primary School in Nairobi play outside their classroom after waiting in vain for their teachers. Teachers’ unions announced the start of a nationwide strike on September 2 to press for payment of new salaries recently awarded by courts. PHOTO | ANTHONY OMUYA |

What you need to know:

  • Learners left on their own as tutors give classrooms a wide berth.
  • Employer warns tutors that they will not be paid for the days they have not been in class.

Teachers on strike will not be paid for the days they have not worked, the Teachers Service Commission has said.

Addressing reporters at the commission’s head office in Nairobi on Thursday, TSC chairman Lydia Nzomo said the commission could not pay workers for days they had not reported to work.

She also insinuated that striking teachers risked being sacked for not reporting to class.

“Teachers know very well what happens when they fail to report to work. They have to work to remain in employment.

“Should they abscond duties, we are going to handle them in accordance with the commission’s code of regulations,” Dr Nzomo said, flanked by TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia.

Further, the TSC boss said, teachers were putting their jobs in jeopardy because the strike is illegal.

“We are not threatening them, but the call on teachers to participate in the illegal strike will unnecessarily put their jobs in jeopardy. As public servants, teachers are aware that they are only answerable to TSC, which is their employer.

“No individual or entity can give teachers directions on matters relating to attendance and performance of duty,” said Dr Nzomo.

She asked teachers’ unions to be considerate of the 12 million schoolchildren who need to be taught.

EXAM ISSUES

Aside from the illegality of the strike, the right to strike was not absolute and should not override the other rights such as the right of the school-going children to be taught, added Dr Nzomo.

“And in the unlikely event that the strike spills to the time scheduled for national examinations, action will be taken to ensure that exam issues are handled,” she said.

The national examinations timetable could be disrupted after the Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers on Wednesday declared an "infinite" strike, vowing that no learning would resume in public schools until they get the 50 to 60 per cent pay increase ordered by courts.

The TSC has already declared the strike illegal, saying it had not received a notice from the unions as required in the Labour Relations Act.

It has dismissed claims by the unions that the strike notice they gave in January holds since the current boycott was a continuation of the one they had started earlier in the year.

“To claim that a notice to strike issued in January 2015 is in force is both misleading and dishonest. That strike was called off on January 14, 2015 and teachers resumed duty. This strike is therefore illegal, unjustified and uncalled for and is unprotected,” said Dr Nzomo.

She emphasised that learning needed to be normalised in schools and asked heads of institutions where pupils had not reported to ensure they are recalled so that "learning resumes immediately".