Fresh dispute emerges as TSC seeks to have Kenyan school heads quit unions

TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is determined to offload school heads and their deputies from union membership on the basis that they are in management and should not be unionisable.

The teachers’ employer reawakened the thorny membership issue, which unions have resisted via a memo dated November 18, which opened a new front in the row with teachers, largely over September pay and out-of-court arbitration ordered by the President.

As the new war front opened, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i tweeted that teachers would start getting their September pay from November 30.

The unions have listed various reasons to resist TSC’s demand. The first is that, if carried through, its membership would shrink by 100,000, which is a significant figure given the amount of contributions that would be lost alongside the school heads’ exit.

The teachers’ employer wants all head teachers, their deputies and heads of departments in public schools to quit unions arguing they are part of management. The demand has infuriated the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet).

Top earners

TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia reportedly raised the issue during a consultative meeting with representatives of teachers and the Association of College Principals about ten days ago. TSC Chairperson Lydia Nzomo was also present at the meeting.

The teachers’ employer is citing the recognition agreements signed with Knut in 1968 and with Kuppet in 2010 to back its insistence that as managers, senior teachers should not be affiliated to unions.

An internal memo dated November 18 and signed by Mary Rotich, acting director (Teacher Management), refers to a meeting between TSC, officials of the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association and the Kenya Primary School Heads Association.

Also present were representatives of the Kenya Association of Technical Training Institutions and Kenya Teachers College Principals’ Association.

According to the memo, representatives of the associations were tasked to state where they belonged during the meeting. “The officials were asked whether they belonged to unions or TSC,” it states.

“Which comes first? Are they members of unions first or are they first employees of TSC?” was what they were asked according to a source familiar with the meeting.

“Interestingly, the leaders of the associations said unions are bothersome and even noted that officials attempted to eject them from workstations if they failed to comply,” said the official.

Sunday, Ms Nzomo confirmed the meeting took place and said it explored quality education and how teachers can effectively contribute.

But she also alluded to the contested matter of membership of unions. “The two recognition agreements are clear. In fact, some aspects of them should be aligned to the new Constitution. Take the two documents and read to see the roles of head teachers and their deputies,” Nzomo said.

The targeted members are significant to unions’ membership as they are least 122,000. And being among top earners, they contribute significant amounts in union dues.

There are 22,000 public primary schools and 7,000 secondary schools. That works outs to 58,000 head teachers and deputies. In addition, every secondary school has at least six heads of department and each primary school at least one senior teacher, translating to another 64,000.

Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion termed the move by TSC, “unconstitutional and an affront to the rights of teachers”.

“The recognition agreement does not deter one from joining unions. It simply states how the unions and the employer shall relate and states the roles of head teachers and their deputies in taking care of school property in the event of industrial action,” Mr Sossion explained.

Sossion added the move also violated international labour laws saying, “We shall not allow that to happen".

Kuppet Secretary General Akelo Misori claimed TSC was out to stifle unions through “unorthodox means”.

“The Constitution and the Labour Relations Act are clear that teachers have a right to join any union and that the employer cannot hoodwink members to join or not to join a union,” Mr Misori argued.

“What we know is that school heads and their deputies must protect property as stipulated in the recognition agreement and that has never been breached,” he added.

TSC is also said to have proposed the amendment of recognition agreements signed with unions during last week’s pay talks that collapsed after parties failed to agree on agenda.

Misori confirmed that the recognition agreement was one of the items TSC wanted to be included in the agenda for the talks but they declined.

Last week, TSC released another circular dated November 24 asking teachers to validate their membership online.

If TSC gets its way, unions will be facing some of the toughest times of their existence as already some branches have been shut down allegedly owing to delayed remittance of dues.

TSC has however disputed the allegations by unions on dues terming them “false and misleading”. “TSC is not withholding any union dues for Knut or any other union,” read the TSC statement.

It also emerged in the meeting that some teachers double up as Sacco officials. “The CEO observed that conflict of interest was hampering service delivery,” said a senior TSC official.