More than 100 teachers working in special units patronized by learners with various disabilities in Embu County have opposed Teachers Service Commission’s (TSC) decision to allow a trade union to access salary deductions without their authorization as required under the law despite their being a written demand that the deduction be stopped.
The teachers also protested over the TSC’s failure to promote them from the grades where they have stagnated for a decade.
This was revealed in a statement by the teachers, adding: “We are being deducted dues towards Kenya Union of Special Needs Teachers (KUSNET) a trade union whose existence we do not know.”
The teachers said they had even filed a successful case against implementation of the deduction and were recently to learn that the same had resumed.
The special needs teachers claimed that over the years, most of their labour grievances went unheard yet they continued to sacrifice their skills and time to handle intricate and complicated special learners’ needs.
“Most of us work under strenuous circumstances tackling some children who need special handling due to their mental and physical status, where more time and mental resources are required,” said the teachers.
The coordinator of Embu County special unit’s teachers’ grievances, Njoka Thaara described the decision by the TSC to authorize release of deduction to the KUSNET which lacked representation from the grassroots as an abuse of their constitutional right.
Njoka said the country has well know trade unions with clear demarcations on who they represented and that against a background where the constitution stipulated that teachers and for that matter Kenyans has a right to choose trade unions of their choice to fight for the grievances.
The Embu County coordinator said that in the past and amid protests irregular deduction affecting hundreds of teachers has been successful refunded and teachers were recently shocked to find the same had resumed even without their being informed of such a sensitive decision.
Within the last few days, the Embu teachers have written letters of appeal to the clerk of the national assembly and parliamentarians from the County for intervention to stop what they termed an illegality.
“We have written to the clerk of the national assembly and our members of parliament from Embu County to intervene on our behalf to have the illegal deductions stopped” said Njoka.
KUSNET, he said, should go out into the counties to launch its own marketing and registration campaigns to recruit it members instead of hiding under the wings of the teachers’ employer to secure remissions irregularly without permission of the affected teachers.
After noticing the deductions and drawing the attention of the TSC that the funds were being remitted to the KUSNET without the knowledge of the teachers or their permission, Njoka expressed dissatisfaction that their employer had failed to stop the anomaly.
The teachers expressed confidence that the MPs will succeed in having the deduction stopped because they were also coming at a time when teachers like all Kenyans were experiencing biting economic crisis warranted by the rising cost of commodities.
By Robert Nyagah
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