TSC wants court to reject teachers’ pay demand
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is unwilling to increase salaries for teachers, citing the prevailing economic situation in the country.
In a memorandum filed at the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi on Thursday, the commission has offered teachers Sh 9.3 billion for various allowances, saying it had made the necessary budgetary allocation to ensure that the offer can implemented without fail.
The teachers’ two unions, Knut and Kuppet, had rejected the offer and insisted on an increase in their basic pay which they said was a standard practice for collective bargaining agreements and would benefit them in calculating their retirement benefits.
They also said this would cushion them against inflation.
In the document filed in court, however, the commission argued that teachers were already cushioned against inflation by the continuous salary reviews since 2003.
“The demand based on inflation is not economically justifiable since inflation has fallen from 15 per cent as at 2012 to 6.9 per cent as at December 2014. Therefore a salary review purely based on inflation may not be tenable,” said the commission.
The commission further argued that in the 2014/2015 Budget, the national net total voted recurrent expenditure after deduction of national debts and consolidated fund service amounts to Sh688 billion for the entire country.
PUSH FOR TRANSFERS
At the same time, teachers posted to northeastern are now calling on their colleagues in other parts to support their push for transfers.
Some of the teachers are camping at TSC headquarters in Nairobi and have refused to resume work over insecurity in Mandera, Wajir and Garissa counties.
At least 300 teachers are staging a sit-in at the headquarters where they have been for two weeks now.
The over 2,000 teachers want their colleagues to go on strike in solidarity with them if the commission makes good its threats to discipline those who will not go back to work next week.
“We will call on all teachers in the republic to go on strike in support of our course,” said Mr John Nyongesa, who spoke on their behalf.
However, Commission secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni had said newly employed teachers would also be replaced if they failed to go back to work.