By Amoto Dennis
Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has vehemently opposed the CBA proposal that has been presented to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
If approved, the proposal which is set to be effected in July 2021 will see teachers get a minimum of 16% salary increment.
The 16% salary hike will benefit teachers in administrative grade C4 to C5 who reaped fruitfully from 2016 to 2021 CBA. The proposal indicates that classroom teachers in lower grades, B5 to B3 will get a 30% salary hike.
According to the proposal, Senior and Chief Principal will earn at least Sh131, 380and Sh157, 656 respectively while Deputy Principals ranked between job groups D1 and D3 will earn Sh77, 840 and Sh125, 573 respectively.
“There was no talk between us and the TSC during the CBA negations to come up with the so-called new salary scales,’’ said Garissa KNUT Executive Secretary Abdirizak Hussein.
He said KNUT‘s position was a pay hike between 120% to 200% while KUPPET wants a 30% to 70% hike.
On allowances, the teacher’s employer proposed the 20% increment in commuter and leave allowances and proposes 10% on house allowance.
In what appears to be a new ground for a tussle between the KNUT and TSC, declaring their stand in a letter to the SRC, KNUT Secretary-General Wilson Sossion accused TSC of forwarding a summary of the proposals the union made.
“Sneaking proposals to SRC in such a way only provokes the ire of the teaching fraternity and teaching service. We have written to point out the anomalies and ask the TSC to, first of all, comply with the law before forwarding the proposals,’’ said Sossion.
On the other hand, KUPPET is gunning for expansion of teachers allowances to include postgraduate, township allowance and harmonized house allowance for all teachers.
Currently, teachers in towns and former municipalities earn higher house allowances than those in the countryside. However, Hussein complains that even this system, in its current form, is discriminative.
