Negotiating in bad faith

What you need to know:

  • Only Wednesday, the Kenya National Union of Teachers ran a heavily worded media statement in which it warned of a strike and scoffed at an earlier commission statement regarding the push for new salaries.

There was a sigh of relief all round last week when the two teachers’ unions resolved to put off their planned strike to pave the way for talks over salaries with the Teachers Service Commission.

The two parties, in fact, agreed to meet on September 30 for further negotiations.

But it now appears the resolution to walk the dialogue path is quickly crumbling.

Only Wednesday, the Kenya National Union of Teachers ran a heavily worded media statement in which it warned of a strike and scoffed at an earlier commission statement regarding the push for new salaries.

While we do not want to take sides on the matter, we must warn against hard-line positions that only stand to disrupt national examinations and other school programmes should the disagreements result in a work stoppage.

It does not make sense for either of the two parties to keep chest thumping and reneging on past agreements with the aim of playing to the gallery through the media.

Instead, both the Teachers Service Commission and the teachers’ unions must get their act together and restrict their arguments to the negotiation table in boardrooms.