The decision-making organ of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) meets today after talks on a new pay structure appeared to be making little progress beyond the offer of a comprehensive medical scheme.
Knut’s National Executive Council (NEC) will be briefed on the progress of the salary talks. Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion said NEC’s decision wold be final.
“We shall take them through the entire negotiation process and where we have reached. If they agree with us, we shall move on with talks,” said Sossion. He also said that if NEC disagrees with the union officials’ efforts on the ongoing salary talks, the decision shall be presented to the Annual Delegates Conference (ADC) next month.
But the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) insisted the discussions had progressed with an offer for comprehensive medical cover for all the 288,000 teachers.
TSC Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni yesterday said Knut and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) were briefed on the insurance cover.
“We are working on the medical scheme for all teachers. The firm has been identified and we shall soon sign the pact,” Mr Lengoiboni said.
He said the specific details of how teachers would benefit from the health cover were still being computed.
“We are still working on the finer details and shall let you know as soon as we are through. It is still a long process. We do not want to speculate,” said Lengoiboni.
The Standard established AoN Minet had been identified to provide the cover. Sossion said the cover would be acceptable to all teachers.
“Teachers have suffered for so long and we shall ensure that whatever cover is presented is beneficial to all the teachers,” he said.
STEP BY STEP
Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori, however, said talks had failed and that “TSC is taking teachers for a ride”.
“We are not fools to go round and round on issues without a solution,” Mr Misori said, although he confirmed that Kuppet supported a comprehensive medical cover.
But Sossion said Knut would participate in the ongoing negotiations to the last date.
“Talks have not collapsed. We simply adjourned to November 27,” he said.
Stay informed. Subscribe to our newsletter
Sossion said the Monday meeting with TSC resolved that the matter of allowances be shelved until discussions on basic pay are complete.
“We want to go step by step and basic pay is the first item,” he said.
He refuted claims that TSC would conduct job evaluations before effecting a salary hike.
Lengoiboni said the talks were going on well and added a solution should be found soon.
“We have been going on with meetings and hope to reach a solution to the issues raised,” said Lengoiboni.
The two unions have had six meetings at TSC headquarters, but the teachers’ employer has not made any counter-offers to the demands by the unions who now want an increase of around 150 per cent, down from 300 per cent.
Knut and Kuppet also want commuter allowances for teachers to match those earned by civil servants at 10 per cent of teachers’ basic pay.
The unions also came down from their push for responsibility allowances by some five percentage points.
The Government withdrew a Sh50 billion offer tabled after protests by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
The Standard Group Plc is a
multi-media organization with investments in media platforms spanning newspaper
print operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The
Standard Group is recognized as a leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key
influence in matters of national and international interest.
join