MP Petition Against TSC Disparity, Pushes for Teachers Salary Review
Charles Nguna, member of parliament for Mwingi West, has shed light on the pay disparity qualified teachers under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) must endure in their service delivery.
In a petition he submitted to Parliament on Wednesday, August 16th, the lawmaker argued that teachers performing the same duties were paid between Ksh25,000 and Ksh36,000.
Nguna argued that nearly one thousand teachers were involved in the squabble that began prior to the 2017 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the teachers and their employer, the Teacher’s Service Commission (TSC).
In 2018, the teachers who had been subjected to interviews for senior graduate teaching positions were deployed as headteachers under Job Group M (renamed Job Group C5).
However, following the passage of the 2017 CBA, teachers were not promoted to the next job classification in which their peers earn a higher salary.
“Their counterparts who went through the same interview process and became principals prior to the July 2017 CBA are now in Job Group D1 and earning higher salaries,” the lawmaker argued.
“Both categories of teachers have the same qualifications, belong to the same occupational group, perform the same duties, and face the same challenges, but earn different salaries and allowances.”
Nguna argued that discrepancies exist in that some senior graduate teachers serve as principals while others with the same qualifications remain in Job Group C5 rather than Job Group D1.
The lawmaker also noted that the affected individuals were not accounted for in the recently announced TSC promotions for 14,738 teachers or 12,634 instructors.
Teachers continue to perform their duties despite feeling discriminated against and demoralized due to the aforementioned issues, according to the petition.
“The teachers exerted their utmost effort to have the issue addressed and resolved, but they did not receive satisfactory responses or action. These efforts include individual letters to the TSC requesting equitable compensation and engagement with the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) to intervene.
Therefore, Nguna is requesting that Parliament compel TSC to assess the salaries and allowances of the affected teachers and retroactively pay them for their deployment in 2018.
The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) reported in February that teachers lost Ksh2 billion as a result of TSC’s five-year delay in promoting 124,105 teachers.
The union argued that TSC’s failure to promote teachers compelled them to remain in the same position for at least five years.
MP Petition Against TSC Disparity, Pushes for Teachers Salary Review