Teachers have demanded an immediate pay rise as agreed between the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and teachers’ unions in a bid to cushion them from the ravages of additional levies.
Addressing the press in Nairobi on Tuesday, the Kenya National Teachers Pressure Group (KNTPG) Chairman, Kinyua Mwangi demanded the implementation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) of July 2023/2024 without fail or the government will face severe consequences.
The first phase of the teachers’ Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was implemented on July 1, 2023 and the second phase was to be implemented from July 1, 2024.
“The levies are already active and in place, why should the pay rise be stopped? This action to delay or deny the promised pay rise is both uncalled for and in bad faith. Teachers need their money paid, whether through parliamentary committee recommendations, industrial action or simply through SRC goodwill and action,” he said.
The teachers noted that denying the increment would anger the already demotivated teachers and will force them to resort to industrial action.
They also demanded confirmation of 46,000 Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers and immediate recruitment of the 20,000 teachers recently promised by the government.
They added that the recruitment should also be done on merit.
The group also called on the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) to stop the Social Welfare/Branch Benevolent Fund (BBF) deductions claiming that they were illegal and teachers should be refunded.
“Teachers have tried stopping it in their pay but it still mysteriously recurs. The existence of these illegal deductions and where the money goes can only be explained by the existing unions or some cartels within the ranks of the employer,” he said.
“Members from several branches have claimed they contributed only Ksh100 and not the blanket Ksh200 deductions being effected,” he added.
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Kinyua alleged that most teachers had neither subscribed nor approved the BBF deductions on their payslip and demanded that no teacher should neither be forced to join a particular union nor forced to contribute a certain amount of money without their participation.
“With the glaring ineffectiveness of the current teachers’ unions, teachers have evidently lost confidence in them and have ceased to recognize them. Hence teachers have resolved that moving forward; their only recourse will be to act directly through relevant parliamentary, senate, labour and education committees and or additionally, through labour court and other litigation avenues,” the chairperson said.
By Obegi Malack | obegimalack@gmail.com
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