Unions, TSC resume teachers' pay talks Friday

What you need to know:

  • Knut Secretary-General Wilson Sossion said the 50 to 60 per cent award offered to teachers by the court still stands.

  • The talks started in November 2015 and stalled after the unions demanded the payment of September 2015 salaries that had been withheld.

Teachers and their employer are set to resume talks on a collective bargaining agreement on Friday.

Top on the agenda is a salary increase for teachers, which has been a bone of contention, leading to several teachers’ strikes and legal battles.

The meeting has been convened under the auspices of the Committee on Terms and Conditions of Service, a statutory body mandated to negotiate salaries for teachers.

On Wednesday, Kenya Union of Post-Primary Teachers Chairman Omboko Milemba said his organisation expects the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to offer a basic salary to enable the negotiations to move forward.

“It is important to look at the presidential offer so that we can move forward but the priority is a basic salary increase and we hope the TSC will bring back the 50 to 60 per cent offer,” said Mr Milemba.

He said there is a need to bring calm in the education sector, which can only be achieved through genuine negotiations by all the parties involved.

Kenya National Union of Teachers Secretary-General Wilson Sossion said the 50 to 60 per cent award offered to teachers by the court still stands.

Mr Sossion said the TSC should be the one to carry out a job evaluation of its employees and determine their salaries through an independently arrived CBA.

The talks, which started in November, stalled after the unions demanded the payment of September 2015 salaries that had been withheld.