Teachers want Rotich jailed over pay rise

What you need to know:

The teachers want the High Court to issue mandatory orders directing the government officials to effect the complete basic salary increment of 50-60 per cent that was initially awarded by the same court’s judgement.
The National Treasury has on several occasions said that it does not have the money to pay the teachers as the pay increment, adding up to Sh17 billion for this financial year, had not been budgeted for.

The dispute between public school teachers and their employer took a new twist Thursday as both sought legal redress for perceived wrongs at the Employment and Labour Relations Court.

Teachers have filed an application through their unions seeking the arrest of eight top government officials for failing to obey court orders in the salary dispute, while the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) wants the court to declare the indefinite strike now under way illegal.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) instituted contempt of court proceedings against TSC’s two ranking officials, chairperson Prof Lydia Nzomo and chief executive Nancy Macharia.

They have also sued Finance secretary Henry Rotich, Education secretary Jacob Kaimenyi and Labour CS Kazungu Kambi as well as the principal secretaries in the respective ministries.

The teachers want the High Court to issue mandatory orders directing the government officials to effect the complete basic salary increment of 50-60 per cent that was initially awarded by the same court’s judgement.

The Court of Appeal had given TSC a temporary reprieve with the conditional stay stopping payment of backdated dues and instead implementing the pay hike amounting to Sh1.4 billion per month as their appeal is being heard.

The National Treasury has on several occasions said that it does not have the money to pay the teachers as the pay increment, adding up to Sh17 billion for this financial year, had not been budgeted for.

To accommodate the increment in the Budget, the government said that there would have to be cuts in development expenditure, an increase in taxes or more domestic borrowing.

Tutors on the other hand have maintained that the government could source the funds if it stopped corruption and tax evasion.

TSC had filed a fresh application at the Supreme Court seeking the reversal of its decision requiring it to pay the increment but Supreme Court Judge Jackton Ojwang on Thursday declined to issue interim orders that would provide reprieve.

Teachers now claim that, by failing to meet the conditional stay, the government is now liable to pay the full Sh70 billion award.

“(Through) various rulings, both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court have declined to stay the execution of this honourable court’s aforesaid judgement save for a conditional stay, which has since lapsed,” Knut said.

READ: TSC challenges Supreme Court ruling on teachers’ salaries

The union says no payment has been made even after writing to the government asking for the same, and their continued disobedience of court orders was unconstitutional.

Tutors want the eight officials to be committed to civil jail for six months each if they fail to comply with the orders effecting the basic pay increment from July 2013.

“Parties who disobey court orders must be punished. No other remedy exists in law to compel the respondents to carry out the public duty and no other remedy is available to compel or obtain payment of the increment in basic pay awarded to teachers,” Knut said.

In a separate case, TSC has taken Knut and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Teachers to court for “causing a nationwide strike since September 1”.

Knut on Wednesday declared an ‘infinite’ strike, vowing that no learning would resume in public schools until they get a 50 to 60 per cent pay increase.

The call to have teachers in public schools stay away could disrupt the national examinations timetable, some of which are expected to start at the end of September.

TSC claims in court documents that the strike was not only in violation of labour laws, but also contravened the rights and freedoms of children by keeping them away from the classroom.

“The respondents have called out the members, who are employed by the applicant, on strike on account of alleged failure by the applicant to pay salary increase awarded by the honourable court to be paid with effect from August 2015,” the commission said.

TSC further argued that no notice of the strike had been given to them as required by law.

Employment and Labour Relations judge Monica Mbaru, who heard both ex-parte applications, directed that the contempt case filed by Knut be referred to Justice Nduma Nderi who heard the initial dispute that resulted in the increment award.

The matter will now be heard on September 21 while the suit filed by TSC challenging the legality of the ongoing teachers strike will be heard tomorrow.