Brace for strike, Kenya National Union of Teachers tells tutors

Kenya; Teachers across the country have been advised to reserve part of their December pay for contingency use should the salary negotiations with the Government fail next week.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) gave the Government two weeks to complete basic salary negotiations, failure to which teachers will not resume duty in January when schools reopen.

“We are advising teachers to use their December pay sparingly because we might stay long before resuming duties. We also advise the parents to design methods of learning because the December holidays might be longer,” said Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion.

Mr Sossion said that currently, the lowest paid teacher earns Sh16,000 of which a third is taxed by Government, leaving a net of Sh10,000.

In addition, he explained that the lowest house allowance paid by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) was Sh2,500, which is also taxable.

Job evaluation

“We have no business with SRC (Salaries and Remuneration Commission) and we cannot and will not and will never. The teaching profession cannot fall under job evaluation. We were very patriotic to allow the children sit for the exams. Now we will square it with the Government,” said Sossion.

He said Knut will not walk out from the negotiations table but would take any appropriate action, including industrial action, should the talks fail to bear fruit.

Knut chairman Mudzo Nzili cautioned that job evaluation introduced by the Government through SRC was not part of the return-to-work formula signed last year that ended the 23-day strike.

NO MANDATE

Mr Nzili said the salaries commission had no mandate in the determination of teachers’ salary and would resist any attempt by the Government to take them round in circles.

According to Knut, teachers should be awarded a 300 per cent raise in the basic salary, and if TSC cannot meet the demand, it must say how much it is willing to offer.

The teachers also want improvement on house allowance, commuter allowance and leave allowance.

The officials made the announcement on Wednesday after the National Executive Council  of Knut was briefed on the progress of the salary talks that ended on Monday without much progress.