Teachers' hopes dashed as TSC maintains there is no salary increase offer

NAIROBI: The teachers' employer has maintained its hardline stand of zero offer on teachers' salary increment in a document filed at the Industrial Court Wednesday.

After a failed attempt to appeal the court decision to take over the matter, Teachers Service Commission (TSC) only offered Sh9.3 billion for allowances that the two teachers' unions had rejected.

This offer dashes hopes of teachers who have been agitating for an increase of up to 300 per cent. The teachers went on strike for two weeks at the beginning of the school calender to push the Government to heed to their demands.

This means that TSC only proposes that the over 280,000 teachers be awarded a raft of allowances, some of which the employer said had already been brought to par with other civil servants. Among the allowances listed in the document are house, commuter, hardship and leave.

In addition to these allowances, teachers shall also get study leave, sabbatical leave and elongation of grades. TSC says any offer on salaries shall only be made after a comprehensive job evaluation by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

READ: Court orders TSC to stick to consent orders

SRC said early this month that the evaluation exercise shall take eight months. It is, however, not clear when it will commence.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) rejected the job evaluation exercise and maintained that only an increase of teachers' basic pay shall appease them.

 JOB EVALUATION

Sources familiar with the thinking of the Government told The Standard Wednesday that "TSC was under firm instruction to ensure they do not make even a half per cent offer on salary." "It is the same old story since they were asked not to make any offer on salary increment because of the spiral effect in the entire public sector," said a source who declined to be named.

"The teachers must wait for job evaluation and its only SRC that knows when the exercise will begin," said the official.

The document filed late Wednesday now wants teachers to benefit from house allowance, which TSC says has been harmonised. "Contrary to the union's assertions that the house allowance negotiated under Legal Notice no. 534 of 1997 was never implemented, the commission avers that teachers were awarded substantial house allowance increase, which was much more than what had been negotiated under Legal Notice no. 534 of 1997," reads the document.

The employer bundles teacher's rates under clusters of Nairobi, Major Municipalities, Other Municipalities and Other County Headquarters.

Under this, TSC wants the highest paid teacher of job group R and who lives in Nairobi to earn Sh 50,000. They currently take home Sh40, 000. Teachers of the same job group from the other three categories shall earn between Sh35,000 and Sh20,000 on a graduated scale.

The lowest paid teachers of job group G and live in Nairobi shall earn Sh6, 750 up from Sh5,000. And teachers in major municipalities shall take home Sh4, 500 from the current Sh3,000. It further says that teachers in other municipalities' shall take home Sh3, 850.  Those in other county headquarters will get Sh3, 200.

"In line with the current cost of housing in the various regions of the country, the commission has currently proposed to review house allowance rates for all teachers and the new rates if accepted are due for implementation with effect from July 1, 2015," reads the document.

The employer also wants teachers to get leave allowance, which shall be paid once a year.