The ongoing teachers’ strike appears headed for a drawn-out battle, as the Government insisted it will not discuss salary increament until a job evaluation is undertaken.
Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi, yesterday maintained the strike is illegal, adding the appraisal to ascertain how to remunerate different cadres of the public service would take a minimum of eight months.
“Of the 39 demands made by teachers in 2013, the Government has met 38,” said Prof Kaimenyi.
His sentiments come five days after schools opened with teachers yet to report to work due to the ongoing countrywide strike. Speaking at the Standard Group Centre on Mombasa Road, Kaimenyi accused the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) of closing the door on any negotiations while the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) came for a meeting but the quorum was not enough.
He said: “In his wisdom, the Cabinet Secretary for Labour Kazungu Kambi, called for mediation before the strike kicked off but there was a stalemate in both meetings due to the issue of basic salary which they say should have been given priority.”
In the meeting, Knut is said to have been adamant and its secretary general Wilson Sossion was quoted saying the salary would form the basis of any negotiations.
The Government, on the other hand, had put on the table a raft of offers on allowances. Kaimenyi said some of the allowances being addressed are house and hardship – calculated as a percentage of the basic salary, leave and travel allowance which is to be harmonised with those of other public servants.
Kaimenyi also said the unions did not follow set down procedures to call for the strike which renders it illegal.
“First, they did not issue a seven-day strike notice and there are court orders declaring the strike illegal but which the unions have sought to ignore and this is a sign of impunity,” he said.
The CS fell short of saying the union leaders are insisting on salary negotiations because deductions that go to them from the teachers, come from the salary. This means the higher the salary the more the deductions.
Currently, the unions deduct about three per cent of the teachers’ salary for their operations. According to Kaimenyi, the packages the teachers have got are much better compared to the years before.
He noted teachers now have motor vehicle loans and mortgages like other public servants. The lowest paid teacher will get a car loan of about Sh800,000 at the rate of three per cent according to Kaimenyi.
Kaimenyi said, “...take an example of 2008, when a chief principal would earn about Sh35,000, there has been an increase of more than 80 per cent and a chief principal now earns more than Sh100,000.”
Kaimenyi said some demands like the 400 per cent salary increment are unrealistic. He also said other public servants are watching the developments keenly and this will form their agitations in future.
Kaimenyi further rubbished claims he has been the stumbling block in the negotiations. The Government also said it will not pay teachers on strike because the law is clear that whoever does not work does not get paid. The CS, however, offered the way forward. “I want to appeal to them to come to the table so that we can reason together for the sake of the Kenyan child,” he said.
Prof Kaimenyi was accompanied by State House Spokesperson Manoah Esipisu.
