TSC disregarding constitution by not remitting dues to KNUT, says Francis Atwoli

Central Organization of Trade Unions COTU - Kenya Secretary General Francis Atwoli. PHOTO: FILE

GENEVA: A decision by the Teachers Service Commission to withhold union dues for Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) is unconstitutional.

COTU secretary General Francis Atwoli while addressing the 105th International Labour Organization session in Geneva Saturday called on the ILO to intervene in the matter and have KNUT paid their dues.

"It is illegal in law and practice as it negates the ILO principles on tripartism arrangements as per the ILO Convention 144," Atwoli said the decision is unconstitutional as the Labour laws clearly outline the process of remitting the dues and when.

"We appeal to the ILO to urgently intervene and ask the Kenya Government to order the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to stop withholding union dues for the teachers' unions in Kenya illegally on flimsy grounds geared towards punishing the unions' leadership."

TSC has been with holding union dues for KNUT since the later went on strike last year to press for better pay of teachers.

The move has starved the KNUT secretariat of funds in a move aimed at punishing the union leaders led by Secretary General Wilson Sossion and Chairman Muzo Nzili.

Atwoli also called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to protect workers funds under both the NSSF and NHIF.

"We wish to call upon his government to ensure that worker' pension funds under the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and the Health Insurance funds under the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) are protected from mismanagement by the politically connected appointees."

Atwoli who co-chaired ILO sessions last year also called on ILO to help establish and equip a productivity centre that will help in measuring productivity lamenting that the current structures in place are ill equipped to do so.

"Cotu is opposed to the application of the productivity measurement concept in wage determination in Kenya. Largely because of our national situation and circumstances, lacks the necessary enabling institutional framework and inadequate facilities to determine productivity indices for various economic sectors," he said to more than 1,000 delegates gathered in Geneva for the annual ILO conference whose theme is "The End to Poverty Initiative – the ILO and the 2030 Agenda".

"We cannot therefore blindly accept a proposal by Kenyan employers to peg wages on productivity when Kenya lacks a full-fledged and economically equipped productivity centre. We therefore call upon the ILO to assist in setting up such a productivity centre in Kenya."

He however cautioned that despite the constitution allowing public participation in the budget making process, workers were not fully integrated in the process. ILO he said should build capacity of workers to participate in the process.

"In Kenya, the Constitution provides for public consultations in policy making including the budgetary process. However, this does not always translate into full integration of social partners' views in such policy agendas however good they may be," he said.

Towards this end, we agree that there is need for urgent capacity building of workers and employers' organizations in order to enable us to effectively engage other interested parties and players in Industrial relation practices in the envisaged national strategies, preparations and with full and broad-based social partners' ownership and support."