Death of Knut? Plans to register new trade union

Details have emerged of a plot to register a new union to exclusively represent all the 250,000 teachers in public primary schools.

The Saturday Standard can reveal today, a serious move to rally all primary teachers under the Kenya Public Primary Education Teachers Union (KPPTEU).

It emerged yesterday that the perennial membership row between the existing giant unions, lack of adequate representation for primary school teachers and failure to recognise new qualifications of the teachers is behind the push.

Two teachers — Robert Nyabuto and Juma Kasim — are behind the drive to get a new union, which is likely to eat into huge membership of Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut). Finer details however reveal that the push to have a fourth union is part of a wider scheme to check the influence of the existing powerful unions, some which already have strong representation in Parliament.

Knut as currently constituted, draws its membership from primary and secondary schools while the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) gets members from secondary schools and colleges.

And in 2011, the Government registered a third teachers union– the Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers (Kusnet).

Yesterday, both Kuppet and Knut opposed the move with the later vowing to fight it off to the bitter end.

“They can register as many unions as they wish but we shall fight it. Teachers are already over-represented. And this is all about fear of Sossion,” Knut secretary general Wilson Sossion said.

Kuppet expressed opposition to the new move with Secretary General Akello Misori saying crowding the teachers space with unions was ill-advised. “Our collective thought of negotiation will be watered down because the new union may take time to settle,” Misori said.

But letters of correspondence between the Registrar of Trade Union and the promoters of the drive reveals that the registration request was rejected on February 13.

However, finer details show that the promoters of the new union have issued a two-week ultimatum to the registrar to do the needful failure to which they will move to court. “I will move to court to have the union registered because the existing unions no longer represent primary teachers adequately,” said Nyabuto.

He said the prayers would be to ask the court to compel the Registrar of Trade Unions– Elizabeth Nyambura Gicheha– to register the union.

Nyabuto and Kasim also claim that Knut leadership is politically divided with some in open support of the opposition while some support the Government.

“In the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) heads and senior teachers benefitted more than the ordinary primary teachers because we lack strong representation,” Nyabuto said.

Divided unions

In her letter dated February 13, 2018, Ms Gicheha says Knut represents all grades and qualifications in Kenya.

She further says Kusnet represents school teachers working in the field of special needs, both membership drawn from public primary schools.

“The Labour Relations Act provides that a proposed trade union would only engage on recruitment for those sectors where no other unions exist,” reads the letter by Ms Gicheha.

However, in their detailed explanation, Nyabuto and Kasim argue that Kuppet and Kusnet are all offshoots of Knut.

They argue that Kuppet exclusively represents secondary teachers and noted that there is no single union solely representing primary teachers.

“This is why there are thousands of P1 teachers who have since graduated after attaining new qualifications but have never been recognised by the employer because no single union understands their plight,” said Nyabuto.

The push for exclusive representation is a matter that has already divided Knut and Kuppet with a push to limit representation to primary and secondary levels respectively.

The matter has been subject of conciliation at the Ministry of Labour, with a report generated on union membership and demarcation.

The conciliation report dated February 16, 2016 recommended that Teachers Service Commission (TSC) separate the membership of the two unions to enhance industrial peace.

The report directed that Kuppet should remain the sole representative of post-primary teachers while Knut only represents the primary school teachers.

The conciliator’s report directed that TSC and Knut start talks that would align the recognition agreement they signed with current realities.

Last week Kuppet wrote to TSC asking why the conciliators report has not been implemented even as claims mounted that some 1,249 members were erroneously added to Knut.

“In view of the foregoing, we are demanding that TSC moves with speed and demarcate the two unions, failure to which Kuppet will take legal action against TSC,” Kuppet’s letter reads.

This means that if the new union is registered, Knut would be locked out of massive primary teachers membership it enjoys. It also means that Knut would have its membership dues chopped even as reports already indicate that some branches are running broke.

Knut boasts of the majority membership of about 193,000 teachers with Kuppet representing 52,000. Kusnet has about 300 teachers.