KUPPET threatens countrywide strike if demands not met

KUPPET Secretary General Akello Misori. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

The Kenya Union Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has threatened to down tools within seven days if the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) fails to honour its demands.

The union wants TSC to meet its re-negotiation demands of the 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

They are demanding that the Commission increases pay for teachers with higher education qualifications, ultimately improving the quality of education in schools across the country.

“When you go to some schools, there are teachers with more than three Ph.D. qualifications. There are even more senior members with higher qualifications than some education directors and yet their pay continues to be general pay…” KUPPET Secretary General Akello Misori noted. 

The union has accused TSC of being an unkind employer, who doesn’t enhance teachers’ capacity nor their contribution to education in the country.

They are also demanding that post-graduate allowance be included in the negotiations, besides basic pay, leave and house allowances, for teachers with higher qualifications.

Earlier, The Standard reported that the union also wants commuter allowance raised from Sh5,000 to Sh8,500 and from Sh16,000 to Sh20,800 for the lowest and highest paid teachers respectively, translating to a rise of between 30 per cent and 70 per cent.

According to Misori, the union wrote to TSC on January 17 demanding the re-opening of the CBA within 21 days.

“All the commission has done is to acknowledge our letter and promise to respond at a later stage after ‘interrogating’ the contents."

The union had asked for a salary raise of between 30 and 70 per cent for the highest-paid and the lowest-earning teachers.