Teachers, civil servants in hardship areas to earn more

by Sam Otieno

Teachers and civil servants have something to smile about following Cabinet approval of rationalisation and harmonisation of hardship allowances.

The issue has been pending for about two years.

Also to be rationalised will be areas that are classified and gazetted as hardship areas, a move that will benefit thousands of teachers and civil servants working in rural areas.

But the decision the Cabinet took yesterday will mostly benefit civil servants who have been earning flat rate hardship allowances, compared to teachers who have been taking home 30 per cent of their basic salary, as hardship allowance.

On their part, civil servants have been earning Sh600 for single workers, while those married were being paid Sh1,200 per month.

"This is a big boost to civil servants because we have been pushing for this increment since 2007," said Mr Tom Odege, secretary general, Kenya Union of Civil Servants (UKCS).

The districts were last gazetted in 1999.

In addition, the figures have not been revised since independence.

This means that the lowest civil servant in job group ‘A’, earning Sh7, 619 per month, will now get a house allowance of Sh2, 285 per month.

But the impact will be felt more by senior civil servants in hardship areas. They include PCs and DCs in Job Group ‘R’ and above, and earn a basic salary of about Sh200,000 per month.

New districts

This means that the top civil servants will take home more than Sh60,000, as hardship allowances.

Teachers, on the other hand, will benefit from newly gazetted hardship areas and those that would be harmonised with those of the civil servants.

There were districts where civil servants earn hardship allowances, but teachers were not and vice versa.

The Cabinet, at the same time, approved new criteria for establishing the designation of a hardship area.

"The new list of hardship areas will be gazetted while a list of areas that have been de-gazetted due to recent developments will also be published," read a communication from State House.

"There are districts which were hived off from the gazetted areas, but are yet to be gazetted," said Mr Njeru Kanyamba, Secretary General, Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet).

Kanyamba said districts such as Kwale were divided into three districts, giving rise to Kinango and Msambweni.

As a result, teachers in Msambweni and Kinango were not benefiting from hardship allowances.

On Thursday, Mr Odege said the move comes at a time the UKCS had pushed for the adoption of a 30 per cent of basic salary for civil servants to be paid out as hardship allowances.

"The stage is now set for the union to push for the implementation of a harmonised house, commuter, subsistence, and accommodation allowances," said Odege.

Prior to the harmonisation there were different criteria for paying hardship allowances for teachers and civil servants.

He said that this has been a contentious issue during Collective Bargaining Agreement between the union and the Government.

"This means that there has been a serious discrimination of civil servants compared to teachers," he said in an interview with The Standard, last evening.

Senior staff

He said the union would push for the harmonisation of commuter allowance, which is enjoyed by senior civil servants and judicial staff.

"These are people who are being driven in Government vehicles yet the real commuters are suffering," said Odege.

With regards to teachers, Kanyamba said they would push for the percentage to be pushed up to 45 per cent of teachers’ basic salary because the economic conditions has changed since they were last reviewed.

Already, Kuppet had written to the chairman of the Public Service Remuneration Board to review teachers’ allowances.

In the letter dated October 15, Kanyamba said the current allowances are not tenable.

"The disparity between allowances of teachers working in the suburbs of Nairobi and those in the rural areas is causing congestion in the city and other staffing imbalances," read the letter.

He called for the removal of boundaries such as roads, administrative and other descriptions saying they were unfair.

"Revise the list of gazetted hardship areas in the wake of the new administrative districts that have resulted in some areas once gazetted as hardship zones losing their status," read the letter.