Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion (right) at a past press conference. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Knut has 37 demands in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, key among them the revision of basic pay, housing and responsibility allowances.
The union also wants the job grade ceiling for teachers increased by two levels from R to T.
Teachers have given the government up to the end of the month to table a pay counter-proposal after the State failed to make any offers in yesterday’s crunch talks.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) secretary-general Wilson Sossion said if the government fails to make an offer in the next meeting the union will promptly issue a strike notice.
“We’ve given the government a few more days but we will be meeting them to hear their counter-proposals on September 30 as they have committed,” he said.
The Teachers Service Commission asked for the extra time as it consults the Salaries and Remuneration Commission on the offer the government will table.
The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet), which only had one representative in the talks, said that it was disappointed with the outcome and would hold a national governing council meeting on Tuesday to decide if to issue a strike notice.
“They had no substantive offer as we had expected and we’ll be holding a meeting to decide the way forward,” said Kuppet’s Akello Misori.
Knut has 37 demands in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, key among them the revision of basic pay, housing and responsibility allowances.
The union also wants the job grade ceiling for teachers increased by two levels from R to T, putting head teachers and principals just a rank below principal secretaries at U. This will ultimately raise the teachers’ pay ceiling.
Kuppet on the other hand wants a review of basic pay and housing allowance pegged at 50 per cent of basic salary.
A strike has the potential of disrupting the school calendar and national exams.
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