Why TSC wants court to declare strike illegal

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has gone back to the Employment and Labour Relations Court over the ongoing teachers' strike.

Commission chairperson Lydia Nzomo said given the events that culminated in teachers' unions calling for a strike, it was clear that it is illegal and therefore want the court to declare it illegal.

"They have not served us with a strike notice and we know that this is misleading and mis-informing," Ms Nzomo said.

"...the work boycott is illegal, unjustified, uncalled for and not protected," she added.

Speaking to the Press Thursday, Nzomo denied claims that the TSC leadership is disobeying court orders.

"We are conscious of court orders. But if we get some orders from court that we are not satisfied with, we are free to appeal," she said.

Nzomo, who was accompanied by TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia, said though they know that the industrial action is illegal, they "want to get a proper document" rendering it as such.

She said the Kenya union of Teachers and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) may not have told their members that the strike was illegal.

Nzomo warned teachers who have not resumed work that their jobs will be in jeopardy.

"TSC assigns teachers to public schools. No one can give them direction and instructions on performance and schools' attendance," she said.

Nzomo said TSC only has Sh174 billion for salaries, recruitment and promotions.

"We have not been allocated any further money. Treasury informed TSC that it is not possible to increase salaries now," she said.

Nzomo asked all head teachers who have not opened schools to do so immediately.

Asked on the next strategy in the event TSC loses at the court today, Nzomo said: "There are no straightforward strategies. We only want teachers to return to work as we check with other Government agencies. We can confidently ask teachers to go back to school but we cannot speak about the other matters."

Earlier in the week , Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori declined to confirm whether they had issued a strike notice. Initially, Kuppet had indicated it was to issue a statement on Monday to react to TSC claims on the strike notice but that did not materialise.

"We shall not comment on that issue until the ultimatum we have given to TSC to effect our salary increases has elapsed," he said.