By Fredrick Odiero
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has called for a review of the non-monetary Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed last year with renewed calls for a sixty per cent salary increment for its members.
Speaking at CITAM Kisumu Church ahead of the Union’s 62nd Annual Delegates Conference KNUT Secretary General (SG) Collins Oyuu said that they revisited the 2021-2025 CBA and added the monetary element.
“KNUT has already initiated discussion with the employer, TSC, over the possibilities of renegotiating the 2021-2025 CBA,” he said.
Oyuu said that they have and will continue to push for inclusion of the salary component included stating that the reason behind omitting the element in the CBA was because the economy was performing badly due to the effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Saying that they have been in talks with the government over the matter, he added that the Treasury had already appropriated funds to boost the TSC kitty for the purpose.
In July 2021, TSC, citing hard economic times, offered the union a non-monetary CBA but it only favors teachers in administrative positions, leaving the classroom tutor with negligible increment over the last four years.
Both KNUT and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) had separately presented their salary proposals to inform negotiations with TSC.
KUPPET pitched a salary increment of between 30 and 70 per cent for the new 2021-2026 CBA while TSC is reported to have proposed between 16 to 32 per cent.
The KUPPET proposal would see the lowest-paid teacher’s salary rise from Ksh 21,756 to Ksh 36,985 while those in higher cadres under Job Group D4 who currently earn Ksh 118,242 would take home Ksh 153,714.
KNUT had also proposed a salary increment of between 120 and 200 per cent.
TSC counter-proposals were never presented to the unions meaning that there have never been any discussions about the CBA, even after TSC wrote to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
Oyuu further said that they are advocating for the revival of a teachers‘ tribunal to handle disciplinary cases in place of TSC which currently hears and determines the cases.
