By Education News Reporter
Teachers are set to smile all their way to the bank should their ongoing negotiations with the employer, Teachers Service Commission (TSC) on salary increment bear fruits.
KNUT Secretary General Collins Oyuu revealed that they have agreed with the TSC to present a 60 per cent salary review for teachers, which if accepted by TSC, will earn the highest paid teacher Ksh237, 376 up from Ksh148, 360 with the lowest paid teacher at B5 getting Ksh89, 016 from Ksh 24,250.
While addressing the media on July 20, 2022 Oyuu noted that KNUT has commenced a structured negotiation with the employer to see 60 per cent salary rise is awarded to teachers.
According to Oyuu, TSC and KNUT had been having a conversation over the matter since the signing of the 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which out of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission’s (SRC’s) advisory denied teachers a salary component in the pact for close to a year which culminated to a four days’ retreat between the two at a hotel in Naivasha between July 7 and July 9 2022.
“The conversation was mutual, full of insightful engagements and with sincere and focused resolutions which resulted into these proposals (the 60 per cent salary increment) that are a subject of negotiations we are engaging in at the moment,” said Oyuu.
The KNUT boss expressed confidence in the negotiations arguing they have put in consideration all the possibilities to get a way forward in their subswquent meetings.
“These entire factors were diagnosed in our Naivasha retreat with the employer and we agreed to table a 60 per cent salary review for teachers immediately. I trust and believe that we the teachers of Kenya can begin our conversation from this standpoint. We both agreed to have a structured conversation in the subsequent meetings and have a way forward,” said Oyuu.
KUPPET on its side is pushing for classroom teachers (at Grades C2 and C5) to get a salary increment of 70 per cent while administrators (at Grades D4-D5) get 30 per cent increase.
This according to KUPPET boss Akello Misori, means that the lowest teacher at Grade C2 will earn a proposed salary of Ksh 59,425 from the current Ksh 34,955 on the minimum and a proposed Ksh 74,280 from the current Ksh 43,694 on the maximum; while the highest teacher at Grade D4 will earn a proposed salary of Ksh 153,715 from the current Ksh 118,242 on the minimum and a proposed Ksh 184,458 from the current Ksh 141,891 on the maximum.
The union is also pushing for teachers to get four new allowances in addition to what they enjoy currently under the 2021-2025 CBA which are risk, overtime, post-graduate and accommodation allowances.
In separate statements released on July 22, 2022, the two Union bosses have however castigated Education CS Prof. George Magoha over his recent remarks on the teacher’s salary increment, adding that teachers’ salary should be of major priority and that salary matters should be left to Teachers Service Commission (TSC) which has a core mandate of running and managing teachers’ affair in the country.
On July 21, 2022 just a day after KNUT addressed the media to give their updates on the review of the 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) where they gave their 60 per cent salary increment demands, Prof. Magoha said the government is already investing a lot in the education sector, leaving little room for a salary rise.
“The government is already spending 25.9 per cent on education, although I’m not the one in salary docket, the 60 per cent the teachers are asking for is unreasonable,” said Prof Magoha by then.
He added that Chapter 15 of Kenya’s Constitution on Commissions and independent offices clearly demarcates the roles of the Ministry of Education from those of the TSC with his roles being clear and distinct therefore he must keep to his jurisprudence.
According to Oyuu the role of TSC is clearly laid out in the Code of Regulation for Teachers (CORT) reviewed 2015 in which among many other functions includes fairly remunerating teachers.
“Magoha’s roles and functions were, are and continue to be policy development in the ministry in relation to development of curriculum, supervision of the same and infrastructural development of institutions of learning right from the basic to tertiary levels of learning; that which he has quite some task to accomplish,” said Oyuu.
He added: “Whereas Prof Magoha has a right to comment on matters Education and its management; the union wishes to state categorically of its commitment to brooding and inculcating leadership respect between and among all social partners including the mainstream Ministry of Education and by extension the Governments face and representation in the Education sector. The CS is disrespectful, careless poking his nose in matters that do not concern him.”
Oyuu stated further that the trade union movements of today should not be taken back to the old barbaric days of acrimony, name calling and media exchange that the CS is trying to lead them to; and that the past belongs to the past and must remain so.
“As KNUT we are not going to entertain detractors who are hell-bent to breeding strife on the already harmonized employer-employee relationship. We are not going to entertain careless, unreasonable, uncalled for and injurious sentiments from persons who are a demonstration of lack of respect to existing structures of leadership and the rule of law,” said Oyuu.
He continued: “We shall keep the focus on what we have started and struggle in consultations with the relevant government agencies to ensure we get to the logical conclusion of our demands without minding the language and behavior of haters of teachers. We therefore ask our teachers to keep the calm and remain assured that the demands are on course and shall in the fullness of time bear fruits.”
His KUPPET counterpart Akello Misori criticised the remarks stating that according to the CS teachers are being ‘unreasonable’ in demanding their share of relief from economic effects that the government has acceded to at the highest levels.
“Not only have teachers’ incomes been eroded by high inflation in the recent years, they deserve salary reviews under the 2022-2025 Public Sector Review Cycle – which they were denied last year on the false basis of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Misori.
Misori explained that over the last four months, Kuppet and Knut have presented their demands to the TSC which is the mandated authority for negotiating teachers’ salaries.
“Our unions have got strong assurances, including written undertakings from the Commission, of the demands being considered within appropriate government channels. It’s, therefore, reckless for the minister to deride a negotiating process of which he is not a party,” added Misori.
