Fury as Teachers Service Commission moves to cut teachers’ July pay

By AUGUSTINE ODUOR

Plans to deny teachers who boycotted work in July close to a full month’s pay are at an advanced stage, even as union offi cials threatened another strike.

Angry union heads described the move as “victimisation” and asked head-teachers not to cooperate even as they pleaded for a reprieve. However, the Government insists public officials have no choice in the matter.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has instructed 47 County Directors to submit attendance list of all the schools in their jurisdiction to enable them to make the cuts.

This is after Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) warned the teachers’ employer not to pay any monies for work not done. A terse communication from TSC Director of Staffi ng Nancy Macharia, seen by The Standard On Saturday, demands a list of all teachers who were fully or partially absent from school after the Industrial Court ruled the strike as illegal.

The director also demands TSC numbers and other details of the errant teachers submitted back to the headquarters by Tuesday next week.

SRC chairperson Sarah Serem yesterday clarified that the decision to withhold teachers’ pay was a Government position that must be executed to appreciate productivity.

She said the Labour ministry, TSC and SRC were l in agreement that teachers must only be paid for work done.

“This was a Government position that I only communicated as advice,” she said, adding they are bound by law to take the hard line.

“If you look at the Constitution and what the labour laws say, you will appreciate what we are saying,” she added.

But the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) said the plan was a scheme to save money to implement the return-to-work formula they had signed to end the three weeks nationwide strike.

They asked school heads not to submit any attendance list to county directors because they already signed a return-to-work deal that protected them from any form of victimisation. Knut national chairman Wilson Sossion and acting Secretary General Mudzo Nzili yesterday said the Jubilee government intends to save Sh6 billion to implement the commuter allowance by denying teachers the July pay.

“The total (monthly) wage bill for the 278,000 teachers is Sh13 billion. The return-to-work formula says that they should start implementing commuter allowance starting July 1.  And this means that they will save Sh7 billion once they deny teachers July salaries,” said Mr Sossion.

He said any attempt to deny teachers their salaries would automatically ignite another nationwide strike. In a letter to teachers’ employer, Knut says that all teachers must be paid in full by end of the month.

“Teachers expect their July salaries to be paid in full without unwarranted recoveries or deductions,” reads the letter, signed by Nzili, in part. “It would be vexatious to take away any of teachers’ remuneration in lieu of the days purported to be lost when it is required that teachers will recover the same,” said Sossion.

Mr Nzili warned TSC secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni that “any negative signals (to our communication) will cause unnecessary industrial unrest.”

The union also said that teachers would not recover the lost time as announced by Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi.

“There is already a go-slow in schools,” said Sossion. “Teachers are not happy. And if they annoy them further then they shall be responsible.”

Former Education PS James Ole Kiyiapi also came to the defence of teachers and termed SRC advice as “misguided and misreading the law”.

“The nature of education is that teachers are expected to cover the syllabus before end of the year, they have already been asked to do that,” he said. “How then does the SRC issue or concern arise?”

He added: “On this, the Government is pushing too far. SRC should not interfere with management of TSC because it is a competent commission.”

Serem, however, said yesterday that teachers will get pay for the days they worked.

“If they worked then they shall get pay for those days. But it would be unfair for any teacher to be paid for days not worked,” she said.

“Salaries are basically compensation for work done within an agreement. If we go against that then we shall make the country unproductive and the cost of employment will be expensive.”

In her letter to Lengoiboni, Serem warned against making any payments.

“Please take note that, as a public officer, if you pay or approve the payment of any remuneration and benefits out of public funds contrary to SRC instruction or advice, and in contravention to the court order to resume work, any payment made for the period during which teachers were on strike would be illegal and in contravention of Article 226(5) of the Constitution, which places responsibility of public funds on such officer,” reads Serem letter in part.

She said that that there is need to ensure that the public wage bill is sustainable and that public service is able to attract and retain the skills required to execute their functions.

“There is need to recognize productivity, performance, transparency and fairness,” read the letter copied to Cabinet secretaries Kazungu Kambi (Labour) and Henry Rotich (Treasury), and Auditor General Edward Ouko.