The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has failed to factor in an allocation for teachers’ pay rise according to a report it released to the Committee on Education and Research of the National Assembly.
Teachers especially classroom teachers were expected to gain more on the new CBA starting July this year but this did not happen as the new CBA that was signed did not have any monetary implementations.
Earlier, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani had allocated an additional 14.9 billion shillings to the TSC, whose budget has risen to 296.6 billion shillings from 281.7 billion shillings in the new financial year.
TSC will receive an extra Sh15 billion for the 2022 – 2023 financial year, with sources saying the additional money is for a pay rise and the hiring of new teachers.
However, teachers may be in for a rude shock as the report, which was presented to the Committee on Education and Research of the National Assembly by the Parliamentary Budget Office.
The report shows that TSC has planned to use its increased allocation of 15 billion shillings exclusively to employ 13,000 secondary school teachers and 9,000 interns to cope with exits and the expected increase in enrolment when the junior secondary is rolled out in January 2023.
This is bad news for teachers who have been hoping that their employer might offer them a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The issue of renegotiating the CBA was not discussed when TSC boss Nancy Macharia appeared before the parliamentary committee in early February to discuss their budget proposals.
Nancy Macharia told MPs allocations for other critical areas like promotion of teachers on competitive selection, the roll-out of a national biometric enrolment, and validation of teachers and gratuity to 3,358 contract tutors in northern Kenya had not been factored in
This move has prompted the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) to issue a strike threat. The union officials argue that the economy has now improved and call for the non-monetary CBA to be reviewed.
Last month, KUPPET, came up with a raft of demands to see increased perks for its members. In the proposal, KUPPET wants salaries and allowances for its members to be reviewed upwards by the TSC to cushion them against the increased Cost of living.
The cost of living has increased rapidly over the last two years affecting the purchasing power of household goods and services. The transport cost has increased beyond the commuter allowance negotiated due to increase of fuel and general overall transport cost”, reads the document.
The union demands that the following issues may be considered for negotiations to cushion teachers in their delivery of services.
The Union demands that commuter allowance be increased by 50% of the current rate. The commuter allowance shall be paid as per Appendix. In the proposal, KUPPET also demands that leave allowance be paid based on one’s basic pay i.e., an equivalent of one month’s basic pay for all cadres.
KUPPET wants an increased leave allowance between 27,325 shillings. 43,694 shillings for the lowest-paid teachers in job group C2. Those in the highest job group, D5, are to get a leave allowance of 152,000 shillings. The leave allowance is payable once a year.
