Economy

Knut issues strike threat over fresh pay talks

strike

Kakamega teachers during last year’s national strike over pay. PHOTO | FILE

Teachers have issued a 21-day strike notice to push the government to start fresh salary negotiation, settle allowances agreed over the past years and promote school heads to job grades a level below that of principal secretaries.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) said a pre-condition for returning to work after last year’s strike was that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) would sign a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) within 90 days from July 2013.

Now, the combative union has 37 demands listed in the CBA that they want the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to meet and discuss, key among them being the revision of housing, commuter and responsibility allowances.

They also want the job grade ceiling for teachers increased by two levels from R to T, putting head teachers and principals just a rank below the PSs at U, which will ultimately raise the teachers’ pay ceiling.

The teachers demand has the effect of putting pressure on the country’s ballooning wage bill at a moment when President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for wage restraint from public servant.

“We demand that a consultative committee be convened within 21 days from August 26 with a view to raising teachers’ basic pay through a CBA,” Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion said yesterday during a media briefing in Nairobi.

“Failure to which the employer (TSC) shall be provoking teachers to an industrial unrest at the expiry of the period.”

Official data shows that three units of government, including the TSC, State corporations and county governments, account for more than half of the national wage bill.

The controller of budget says teachers wage bill stood at Sh153.8 billion in the year to June, representing 57.3 per cent of the Sh268.3 billion of the central government wages.

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The State has maintained that teacher demands are unsustainable. The President wants to cut a public sector wage bill that is now more half of annual tax revenue, while the International Monetary Fund puts the global benchmark at about 35 per cent.

Over the past decade, Knut has triggered a number of teachers’ strike that has seen public schools lose out on valuable learning time with an adverse impact on performance in national examinations.

Private schools have not been affected because teachers in the institutions are not unionised.

Knut, which represents more than 200,000 teachers, wants better housing, medical and transport allowances.

Mr Sossion said teachers’ housing allowance was last reviewed in 1997, with half of the teachers getting a monthly allowance of Sh3,000.

Teachers’ basic salaries range from about Sh17, 000 to Sh144,000 a month for those in job group R.

“We have made it clear to TSC of the need to raise job grades and matching pay for all head teachers and principals. It is now their duty to agree with SRC on a formula,” he said.