Teachers Strike Threats As KNUT, KUPPET Engages TSC On Pay Rise.
The two largest teachers’ unions have engaged their employer in life-or-death negotiations to avoid a strike that could disrupt national exams next month.
The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) are negotiating a new pay agreement with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
Following the expiration of the previous CBA, which was worth Sh54 billion, the three signed the 2021-2025 CBA last year, which provided no monetary benefits to members.
According to the unions, the economy has now improved. Kuppet demanded a 30% pay increase in a letter to TSC on January 17 and threatened to strike if the commission did not respond within 21 days. On January 20, they responded.
“The commission is interrogating the issues raised therein, we will respond thereafter,” Mr Cavin Anyuor, the legal, labour and industrial relations director at TSC, said in the letter to Kuppet Secretary-General Akelo Misori.
The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education is scheduled to begin on March 7 and end on March 9, while the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education is scheduled to begin on March 14 and end on April 1.
Teachers are involved in marking in addition to supervising examinations.
Kuppet’s National Executive Committee (NEC) met in Nairobi yesterday.
They are requesting a pay increase of between 15% and 20%.
KUPPET Wants 30-70 Per cent Salary Increase For Teacher, Calls For Renegotiations
The union is running a campaign to rehire teachers who left between 2019 and June of last year when TSC had a falling out with the leadership of then-Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion.
Its membership has shrunk from 187,000 to 15,000, and many members have been excluded from salary increases and promotions. Monthly earnings from union dues have fallen from Sh144 million to just Sh11 million. Union employees were forced to work without pay for months as debts piled up.
Kuppet’s proposal calls for the lowest-paid teacher’s basic monthly salary to be increased from Sh34,955 to Sh59,425 and the highest-paid teacher’s salary to be increased from Sh118,242 to Sh153,715.
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It also wants to raise the commuter allowance for lower cadre teachers from Sh5,000 to Sh8,500, and for higher paid tutors from Sh16,000 to Sh20,000.
If their demands are met, Kuppet members who are eligible for hardship allowance will see it increase from Sh10,900 to Sh16,350 for the lowest-paid teacher and from Sh38,100 to Sh57,150 for the highest earners.
Kuppet has also proposed a new risk allowance for science teachers, ranging from Sh5,465 to Sh30,587.
No Provision For Teachers Pay increase In 2022 Budget Policy Statement For Education.
Teachers Strike Threats As KNUT, KUPPET Engages TSC On Pay Rise.
