Tutors demand that house allowances be pegged on job groups

Teachers now want their house allowances harmonised based on job groups and not pegged on regions where they are currently based.

Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) Wednesday said this discrimination has a negative impact on staffing across the country.

Speaking at Kuppet headquarters in Nairobi, union Secretary-General Akelo Misori, accompanied by his deputy Moses Nturima and National Chairman Omboko Milemba, said they are ready to engage the Teachers Service Commission on the issue.

POLICY

Mr Misori said the union has written to TSC to register its opposition to the current remuneration policy which pegs teachers’ house allowances on their area of service.

Currently, the employer groups teachers in regional categories, with Nairobi at the top of the ladder. The other categories are Mombasa, Kisumu, Malindi and Naivasha.

Accordingly, teachers in Nairobi earn more than double the house allowance paid to their counterparts from the rest of the country.

“To highlight just two examples, Nairobi teachers at Grade C2, which is equivalent to Job Group K, take home Sh16,500 in house allowance while those from the rest of the country earn only Sh7,500. Nairobi teachers at Grade C3, equivalent of Job Group L, take home Sh35, 000 while their colleagues from the rest of the country get Sh15,400. The gaps are bigger at higher grades,” said Mr Misori.

“Article 27(3) of the Constitution, as read with Article 43(b), unambiguously prohibits all forms of discrimination and provides the right to decent housing. Teachers’ right to decent housing can be weighed on a number of legitimate parameters such as work experience, family size, special needs and others but certainly not one’s area of service,” Mr Misori added.