Female teachers in the country have now moved to court to compel their employer Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to refund monies which they say have been ‘forcefully’ deducted from their payslips since 2019 without their approval.
In a petition filed before the Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC) in Nakuru by five senior officials of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), the teachers want the remittances to a mystery account only known as ‘SWA’ stopped and refunds made.
Officials Paul Kipchumba Rotich (Nandi), William Lengoyiap (Samburu), Robert Miano (Laikipia), and Peter Oluoch (Tana River), all executive secretaries, and Jentrix Ogola (Kisii Vice Treasurer), have sued the commission, TSC Chief Executive Officer Dr Nancy Macharia, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), and KNUT and KUPPET.
They are seeking a court declaration that the deductions of Ksh200 on female teachers’ payslips are unlawful and unconstitutional.
In their petition, the KUPPET senior officials indicated that TSC in early 2019, without consultation, started deducting Ksh200 from every female teacher without their knowledge.
It was not clear why the deductions were being made and to whom they were channelled as the payslips only indicated the acronym ‘SWA’.
They pointed out that when the female teachers complained to the branch officials of both KNUT and KUPPET, who in turn informed the union national offices, TSC immediately embedded an “exit button” to enable members of KNUT and KUPPET exit the unions as a precursor to benefitting from the third phase of salary increase.
According to the petition, KNUT and KUPPET took no steps to protect their members from exploitation by TSC and never took up the matter with the employer. As a result, more and more female teachers were forced into an arrangement they knew nothing of and which they had not opted to join.
When the teachers sought information from their respective unions, the petitioners noted that they were not supplied with this information and that they remain in the dark to date as to the whereabouts, the operations and day to day running of the entity that has been faithfully receiving their money from the year 2019 without their authorization.
“The 1st (TSC) and 5th (Dr. Macharia) Respondents in what could only be seen as an attempt by the two to conceal the nature and cumulative amount of the deductions in order to confuse the affected teachers on how much has been deducted from them cumulatively, often stop the deductions from time to time for a month or so after which they resume the deductions. The effect of stoppage of deductions and restarting is that, the monthly deductions have to start afresh every time there is a stoppage in deductions concealing the real cumulative amount of deductions that the female teachers have been subjected to from the year 2019 to date,” reads the petition.
The petitioners added that the affected teachers believe that these illegal deductions, which conveniently started after the current CEO took over, could only mean that the CEO has a personal interest in the deductions; the very reason their complaints have been ignored for five years now.
They added further that despite EACC receiving formal complaints in this regard, it has remained silent despite the concerns being of grave nature as they touch on the bread and butter of the teachers.
Consequently, they want the court to find EACC at fault for failing to investigate and update them, and being in violation of the female teachers’ right to information under Article 35.
They also want the TSC and Dr Macharia to be found to have violated the female teachers’ rights under Article 40 of the Constitution.
As a result, they are seeking orders directing TSC and its CEO to refund the money deducted from 2019 and all the interest therein.
Other reliefs include a declaration from the court that the female teachers reserve the right to choose which union to subscribe to, an order directing EACC to assist in tracing and recovering all the money deducted, an order prohibiting the commission and its CEO from using the ‘exit button’ as a tool to intimidate and/or destabilize KNUT and KUPPET, and an order restraining TSC and TSC CEO from taking punitive action on the five petitioners who are teachers for filing the case before court, among other interventions.
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By Roy Hezron
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