TSC, unions clash over teachers’ perks

By AUGUSTINE ODUOR

More teachers are set to lose their hardship allowances even as their unions threatened a nationwide strike, if the same is not reinstated.

Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers have accused the teacher employer of withdrawing this allowance for hundreds of teachers in certain areas.

The two unions issued a 14-day notice upon which a nationwide strike will commence if the Teachers Service Commission fails to address the issue.

But TSC Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni said all teachers who have been benefiting from the allowances but do not come from the officially gazzetted hardship areas will not continue to enjoy the perk.

Gazetted areas

He said TSC has welcomed the opinion of the unions but said they should have consulted the commission instead of rushing to the media.

“If they came here we would have taken them through the list of the gazzetted areas,” he said.

The Standard is in possession of a 1997 gazette notice that outlines about 25 regions that are officially recognised as hardship areas. This is, however, different from the 44 regions listed in the TSC Code of Regulations for Teachers (Revised 2005).

Mr Lengoiboni said the code of regulations is currently under review.

“We cannot use the areas in this document because they are not officially gazetted,” he added.

Lengoiboni said TSC is cleaning its payroll to weed out areas not covered by the allowance. He said the move to adopt Integrated Personnel Payroll Database from the previous Government Information Technology system has unearthed the anomaly and is being corrected.

“We have been doing this since 2011. So we are withdrawing the allowances but we are not recovering the monies from the teachers,” he said.

It was not, however, immediately clear how many teachers will be affected.

Knut said teachers in Taita Taveta, Nyambene and Kericho already had their allowances withdrawn. But Lengoiboni said he already held talks with some teachers and unions officials from Kericho and they were in agreement that their areas were not covered.

“Not every school in Kericho, Taita Taveta or Nyambene is covered. Those are the affected areas because they are not officially gazzetted,” he explained.