Team wants 128 per cent raise for teachers

A key organ of the Ministry of Labour has proposed that teachers get a 128 per cent salary increase despite opposition from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) and the tutors' employer.

The revelations are contained in a memorandum filed last week with the Industrial Court by the Central Planning and Monitoring Unit (CPMU) of the Labour ministry in the teachers' pay dispute. The case will be mentioned today.

Presiding Judge Juma Nderi had ordered the CPMU and SRC to file their reports in relation to the case within 10 days from January 26, after directing the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) to call off a strike that crippled learning in all public schools.

SRC chairperson Sarah Serem and National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich are opposed to the teachers' pay demands. Rotich said the Government cannot afford a salary increase for teachers since no money was allocated for it in the current budget.

The unions filed their memorandum to the case two weeks ago. They had called off the strike after agreeing to have the Industrial Court arbitrate in the dispute. An attempt by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to challenge the court's jurisdiction in the matter failed.

The memorandum filed by the CPMU proposes that teachers get a salary increase of Sh137.2 billion annually, but spread over four years. This amounts to a basic salary increase of 32 per cent (Sh34.3 billion) a year over the period. The figures are based on the current annual wage bill of Sh107.2 billion.

CPMU says it computed the figures using changes to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) between July 1, 1997 and June 30, 2013.

"Over the same period, teachers' salaries increased by 152 per cent. Therefore the net CPI entitlement is 128 per cent," notes the document.

"If this entitlement is spread uniformly across the four-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) cycle, it will translate to 32 per cent increment of basic wages annually," reads the CPMU document.

CPMU says that the "CPI aims at restoring the purchasing power of basic consumer goods and services, which has been eroded by inflation since the last substantive wage revision."

Knut and Kuppet had initially demanded a 300 per cent salary increment, which they later scaled down to between 150 and 200 per cent, but had to call off the strike before getting the Government to back down from its hardline stance.

"Currently, salaries paid to various grades in the teaching service is fully harmonised with the rates applicable in the civil service," reads the TSC memorandum filed at the Industrial Court.

"If the demands by the unions are met it will push the teachers; wage bill to Sh683 billion," said TSC.

TSC says it currently spends Sh106 billion and that this will shoot up to Sh330 billion if teachers get their wish.

Budgetary allocations

The CPMU says that even though budgetary allocations to TSC have gone up, the money only caters for normal recruitment and promotions.

It says that the number of teachers has increased from 235,035 in 2009 to the current 281,591 and the secretariat staff also rose from 2,841 to 3,002 over the same period.

"The current budgetary allocation to TSC for secretariat staff and teachers increased from Sh80.4 billion in 2009 to Sh154 billion in 2014...the budgetary allocation to TSC has been increasing by an average of 11.3 per cent per annum. On average, the number of teachers grew by 3.96 per annum," reads the report.

Over the same period, CPMU says the Exchequer allocation towards teachers increased from Sh 78.4 billion to Sh 150.1 billion.

"It can be observed that without harmonisation, allocations and expenditure on teachers increased by an average of 11.3 per cent and 11.6 per cent per annum respectively. The allocation to TSC has been increasing by these rates to cater for normal changing dynamics such as new recruitment, promotions and natural attrition," says CPMU.

The report says spending on TSC secretariat staff increased by Sh1.56 billion from Sh1.7 billion in 2009 to Sh3.3 billion in 2014.

But the Sarah Serem-led commission says it is no longer business as usual in salary negotiations, and asked the court to respect the constitutional provisions that anchor SRC functions.

"Historically, remuneration and benefits were set by public sector employers without due regard to what was obtaining in the market and fiscal sustainability. The unions would make demands and negotiate with the employers; failure to agree led to industrial action.

The 2010 Constitution creates a paradigm shift in the manner in which such negotiations may be undertaken," reads the documents filed by the SRC.