Knut: We have all along been guided by rule of law and will obey court’s orders

The Kenya National Union of Teachers has always and will continue to fight unwaveringly for the rights of teachers, as mandated by the law and in pursuit of the indivisible rights of workers.

In executing our mandate, we are guided by the Constitution, labour laws, and court decisions.

For this reason, we confirm that we will abide by the ruling made by Justice Nelson Abuotha of the Employment and Labour Relations Court on Tuesday, September 15, asking us to refrain from street protests as we wait for the main ruling of the petition by the Teachers Service Commission that will be issued on September 25.

We hope that the TSC will also honour the ruling and stop trying to intimidate our members.

A BANQUET OF LIES

However, we want to clarify several matters here.

Since we called the national teachers’ strike three weeks ago, we have noted with grave concern an orchestrated wave of lies, misinformation, falsehoods, and half-truths by the government and its agencies, whose overall intention is to demean teachers and incite the public against them.

Our attention has particularly been drawn to a recent advisory by the National Treasury presented to President Uhuru Kenyatta, purportedly giving an update and suggestions on how the teachers’ case should be handled.

We wish to clarify the following: One, the salary award of between 50-60 per cent was based on proposals presented to the Industrial Court by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and was never a creation of Knut.

EXTREMELY DISHONEST

The union had asked for a 300 per cent pay rise, but the judge was persuaded by TSC’s submission. In effect, the union only got 16-20 per cent of the request it had submitted to the court.

Clearly, this was a massive climb-down but we accepted it in the spirit of give and take that defines industrial relations.

Therefore, we find it absurd and extremely dishonest for the TSC and the National Treasury to claim that the Government cannot afford the award and that it is unsustainable.

Two, the National Treasury and the TSC have consistently given the impression that the award is part of the salaries given to teachers in 1997.

The pay for the 1997 award was concluded in 2005. The new award is based on a new collective bargaining agreement for the period 2013-2017.

SALARY INEQUALITY
Three, contrary to the National Treasury’s contention that paying the award would create distortion in the public sector wage structure, the truth of the matter is that teachers are underpaid and the so-called harmonisation of salaries does not exist.

Consider that the starting basic salary for a P1 teacher of Job Group G is Sh16,692 and a maximum of Sh21,304 while a junior clerk at the TSC headquarters, who is also in Job Group G but with lower qualifications, earns a minimum basic salary of Sh35,353 and a maximum of Sh42,928.

A chief principal in Job Group R earns a minimum of Sh109,089 and a maximum of Sh144,928. An officer in the same Job Group at the TSC headquarters earns a basic salary of Sh153,878 and a maximum of Sh205,172. Where is the equity and harmonisation that TSC keeps talking about?

INSIGNIFICANT EXPENDITURE
Four, the overall award adds up to Sh17 billion a year or Sh1.4 billion a month. The actual cost after government taxation will be Sh900 million a month or Sh10.8 billion a year.

The budget for the 2015/16 financial year is Sh2.1 trillion. Sh17 billion would be an insignificant expenditure.

Considering the amounts involved, it is inconceivable that the new teachers’ salaries would necessitate a 5 per cent increase in VAT, from 16 per cent to 21 per cent, as the National Treasury has claimed.

We believe that the government has the resources and capacity to pay the award given by the courts.

FRAUD CASES

We note that as the government insists that it does not have the resources, the news is full of stories of millions of shillings lost through outright theft, the latest being the Sh791 million fraud at the National Youth Service.

As teachers, we love the children of Kenya and toil every day to give them the best education possible. We await the court’s ruling later this week on this matter.

The writer is secretary-general, Kenya National Union of Teachers