Corporate

Teachers get best maternity deal among civil servants

TSC-nancy

TSC CEO Nancy Macharia. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Teachers who adopt children will now enjoy a 45-day paid leave after the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) announced a new enhanced package that will make tutors have one of the best maternity packages in the civil service.

The package is in partial fulfilment of the 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and is slightly longer than the one-month paid leave enjoyed by other State officers who opt to become adoptive parents.

“A teacher is eligible to a pre-adoptive leave of 45 calendar days with full pay from the date of adoption,” said TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia in a circular to teachers.

Female teachers are now eligible to fully paid four months maternity leave exclusive of annual leave, following the announcement.

Paternity leave for male teachers has been increased to 21 calendar days from the 10 days that have been the norm.

This comes barely a year after President Uhuru Kenyatta assented to the Employment (Amendment) Bill of 2019.

The law introduced paid leave days for adoptive parents.

The changes, however, exclude parents of children born through surrogacy after Mr Kenyatta declined the provision on grounds that Kenya lacks a substantive legal and regulatory framework to protect all parties within the surrogacy arrangement.

Kenya’s law allows a fully paid, two-week paternity break for fathers and a three-month maternity leave for those who nurse their own pregnancies.

Dr Macharia noted the Commission had successfully migrated services related to leave application to an online platform.

The migration to the online platform means that leave days do not necessarily need to be booked one month in advance as has been the norm.

This is part of reforms and innovations in the provisions of teaching services as stipulated under the TSC 2019-2023 Strategic Plan.

*** Updated