Teachers’ strike continues as Knut walks out of talks

FROM LEFT: Labour PS Noor, TSC secretary Lengoiboni, Labour Secretary Kazungu and Knut chair Wilson Sossion. [PHOTO: TABITHA OTWORI]

By AUGUSTINE ODUOR

Nairobi, Kenya: Public schools will remain closed for the eighth day today as Government talks with the teachers’ union collapsed.

This also means more than 278,000 teachers will remain without their June salaries following the Government’s directive to withhold pay for all those on strike.

After several hours of talks and consultations that saw Labour Secretary Kazungu Kambi dash to State House, Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Government side failed to agree on a return-to-work formula that would have sent teachers back to class today.

Knut officials led by union chairman Wilson Sossion walked out of the meeting last evening saying the State did not offer anything worth calling off the strike. Mr Sossion said once the Government is ready and has “put something on the table” they will engage in another round of talks.

Court order

Mr Kambi, however, said the talks were called off in compliance with a court order that demanded Knut to call off the strike first before discussions could begin. But he also failed to explain why the unions were invited for the talks before they called off the industrial action.

“The court ruled that we shall commence talks after unions called off the strike. We, therefore, found it illegal to continue talks because we cannot break the law,” he said. He added that everything must be done within the law even as he appreciated Knut’s partial fulfillment of their end of the deal by attending the meeting.

He said after talks collapsed, the Government now awaits advice from Attorney General Githu Muigai on the way forward. “But we are ready to talk. If they come back to negotiate we shall be ready for them,” said Kambi.

The intensity of the discussions also attended by the Teachers Service Commission were evident after Salaries and Remuneration Commission representatives were asked out of the meeting on a demand by Knut.

Also locked out was the Teachers Service Remuneration Committee on terms and conditions of service some five minutes after the meeting began at the Labour Ministry boardroom at 10.30am. Sources at the meeting indicated that Knut ejected the two teams because they were not relevant in the talks.

“The union insisted that they would be useful during new negotiations and not for the first agreements. They also said that incase of a dispute they would be consulted later,” said the source who attended the meeting. Further revelations also indicated the government side, led by Kambi and his PS Ali Ishmail proposed both legal notices no 534 of 1997 and the no 16 0f 2003 be vacated to pave way for fresh talks.

Under this arrangement, the Government wanted only house allowance, which was part of the 1997 agreement, pulled forward once Knut agrees to the nullification of both legal notices and subject the same to fresh negotiations.

“The remaining commuter and medical allowances were not major concerns because for the former it is just about harmonisation and for the latter, the employer could negotiate a better health scheme,” said the source.

Initial reports indicated Knut had ceded ground and demanded the house allowance be paid fully. Under the 1997 agreement, teachers were to get half their basic pay towards house allowance.

But Sossion said teachers demanded to know how much money the State had set aside.