Big win for Knut members in war with TSC over new salaries
What you need to know:
- The Education Committee Tuesday brought the two parties together.
- The committee asked the commission to ensure all public school teachers are beneficiaries of the 2017-21 Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The National Assembly has stepped in to end a long standing dispute between the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut).
The Education Committee Tuesday brought the two parties together and asked the commission to ensure all public school teachers are beneficiaries of the 2017-21 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
TSC left out teachers affiliated to the union, citing court cases.
Busia Woman Representative Florence Mutua, who is also the committee chairperson, said teachers should be promoted based on the code of regulations and scheme of service.
CBA benefits
“All teachers should be paid the third CBA benefits irrespective of which union they belong to. The money for salary increase was budgeted for and approved by the National Assembly,” Ms Mutua said.
She added that the code of regulations does not capture the career progression guidelines that TSC favours and which have been at the centre of the dispute.
In July, some 32,556 teachers in job group B5 who are Knut members, were left out in promotions in the last phase of the Sh54 billion CBA.
Last year, a total of 103,634 teachers were not captured in the third phase of the CBA.
The committee also asked TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia to work with Knut and reset its register to reflect the union membership in June 2019.
Lost membership
The giant union has lost up to 78 per cent of its membership since July 2019. The numbers have dropped from more than 200,000 to less than 50,000.
Ms Mutua’s team asked TSC to release cash owed to the union.
“We recommend that the parties cease the hostility, compromise and agree to withdraw the court cases. The relation should be set at pre-2016 level,” the Busia woman representative said.
Ms Mutua asked both parties to be flexible and work for the benefit of teachers.
Mrs Macharia and Knut officials John Matiang’i (treasurer) and Hesbon Otieno (deputy secretary-general) appeared before the panel to explain why their relation is hostile.
Schemes of service
Officials of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (Kuppet) also attended the meeting.
Mrs Macharia insisted that the commission cannot use the schemes of service to promote teachers.
“The scheme is archaic,” the TSC chief executive said.
She also denied asking tutors to abandon Knut in order to get salary raises.
Mr Otieno and Mr Matiang’i said TSC has been using bloggers to incite teachers against Knut.
Kuppet secretary-general Akelo Misori said every teacher should be a beneficiary of the CBA.
The team asked TSC to draw up teacher professional development guidelines and submit them to the House for approval.
