Teacher unions now reach out to Labour CS amid looming strike

KUPPET secretary general Akello Misori and national chairman Omboko Milemba. [Edward Kiplimo,Standard] A teachers' union now wants the Labour Cabinet Secretary to come in and stop a looming strike. Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) is accusing the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Ministry of Education of failure to listen to their grievances. On Tuesday, CS Alfred Mutua met top officials of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), which has also made similar complaints. Secretary General Akelo Misori, in a letter to Dr Mutua on Monday, raised 11 issues that they need resolved "The union has exhausted the means to have the employer address the grievances including through retreats, correspondences and demand notices. Only the Cabinet Secretary can force the employer to address the members' grievances within a realistic time frame of seven days failure to which the union will call its members to a nationwide strike starting Monday, August 26." He wants Dr Mutua to force TSC to act "given the weight of these grievances". Among the grievances is the dispute on terms and conditions of more than 140,000 Kuppet members and over 300,000 teachers, including non-members. According to Misori, TSC has violated the rights of members, leading to loss of employment benefits and deterioration of their terms as well as Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) 2021/25 as amended by an addendum of August last year. "The employer, being aware of its willful violations, infringements and breaches of our members' terms and conditions of service, has blatantly refused to meet the union or respond to our varied correspondence outlining the union's grievances. This is in violation of the nature of social dialogue requiring the parties to resolve their differences through negotiation," claims the union. The CBA promised a salary increment of between seven per cent to nine per cent. The union is also complaining about capitation to schools, which they termed as too inefficient and is always behind by a term or two, exposing the institutions to debts. "Capitation figures have not been reviewed for more than five years, yet the prices of school consumables including energy, food and utilities have more than doubled. The union rejects the proposed cut in capitation funds by 24 per cent from Sh22,244 to Sh17,000," says Kuppet. On the CBA, Misori says TSC has breached the agreement since it failed to implement phase two of the addendum effective July 1 this year. Other issues that the union has raised include promotion of 130,000 teachers, who Misori says have been shortlisted and interviewed for new grades but failed to get their appointments owing to budgetary constraints. The union argues that despite the Government's allocation of Sh15 billion in the current financial year for teachers' medical insurance cover, the scheme has collapsed. "Our members are in an untenable situation where they can hardly access health care services." Teachers have also complained about non-remittance of loans and National Social Security Fund dues. "Through these acts of omission, teachers are exposed to non-compliance sanctions and pecuniary embarrassment due to default on their obligations," says Kuppet. Mutua is expected to avert the teachers' nationwide strike, which the unions have threatened to call as schools reopen for third term. On Tuesday, the CS said the union had raised key issues. "I assured the union leaders of my commitment to finding swift resolutions to these issues and pledged to collaborate with my Cabinet colleagues and other relevant government bodies to address their concerns."

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