- Special Needs Education teachers in Laikipia are threatening industrial action over unresolved grading and remuneration grievances.
- The teachers want TSC to implement parliamentary recommendations on career progression and address benefits they say have remained unresolved since 2018.
- They are also questioning deductions allegedly remitted to KUSNET, saying they are not members of the union.
A dispute over job grading and salary arrears has placed Special Needs Education teachers in Laikipia on a collision course with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), with the teachers threatening to down their tools.
The teachers say they have been disadvantaged since 2018 when the teachers’ payroll and career progression system was changed, resulting in discrepancies in their job titles and grades.
Laikipia SNE teachers’ coordinator Mwenda Mwithimbu said the teachers wanted TSC to honour recommendations made by Parliament.
“We are airing our grievances on Career Progression Guidelines, in which we were discriminated against in 2018 when the scheme for payment of teachers migrated to the new system,” Mwithimbu said.
Speaking in Nanyuki at the start of the third term, he said SNE teachers should be graded two levels higher than their colleagues in regular schools because of the additional demands involved in teaching learners with special needs.
“TSC should grade us accordingly and remunerate us, while backdating salary arrears to 2018. Parliament issued a six-month ultimatum to that effect, but nothing has been done yet,” he said.
Teachers demand grade correction
Mwithimbu said teachers were seeking correction and conversion of their grades according to the approved Career Progression Guidelines.
They are also demanding payment of salary arrears dating back eight years and recognition of C2 as the entry grade for qualified SNE teachers.
The coordinator said failure to resolve the dispute had denied teachers financial benefits and allowances associated with their rightful grades.
The teachers also questioned salary deductions allegedly made by TSC on behalf of KUSNET.
“At the top, we have a union purporting to represent us, but there is no physical office and we do not know who elected them. We are being deducted money by TSC in favour of KUSNET, yet we are not members,” Mwithimbu said.
Parliament scrutinises career progression dispute
The allegations come against the backdrop of parliamentary scrutiny of the SNE teachers’ career progression.
Runyenjes MP Muchangi Karemba said in February that TSC had acknowledged before the Public Petitions Committee that job titles in its payroll and those provided for in the 2018 Career Progression Guidelines had been aligned for SNE teachers.
Karemba said the commission blamed delays in implementing the changes on the reconfiguration of Government payroll systems during migration to a new system.
He said the parliamentary committee found that although basic salaries had not been adversely affected, benefits and allowances associated with specific grades had been affected.
The situation, he said, had created confusion and denied SNE teachers their rightful recognition in the public service.
The petition on alleged discrimination in the career progression of SNE teachers was tabled in Parliament in 2023 by academician Dr Robert Njunukha Wekesa.
Teachers warn of industrial action
The Laikipia teachers said Parliament had already provided a pathway for resolving the dispute and that there was no justification for further delays.
They warned that continued inaction could lead to industrial action during the third term.
The teachers said they wanted TSC to implement the parliamentary recommendations, settle outstanding salary arrears and ensure future career progression for SNE teachers is based on clear and equitable guidelines.
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They maintained that teachers handling learners with special needs perform specialised duties that should be recognised through appropriate grading, remuneration and benefits.
By Kimutai Langat
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