Teachers Union issue strike notice
Learning activities in the country could be paralyzed from January next year after the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), formally announced all teachers will boycott classes.
Sossion said Knut had resolved to go on strike after talks with Government officials over amongst other issues, the implementation of previously agreed pay increase perks broke down.
“We have had 26 meetings with representatives from the Teachers Service Commision (TSC), over the past three months, and the impression we are getting is that the officials are either unwilling or unable to heed to the challenges our teachers face on a day to day basis,” the Union’s Secretary General Wilson Sossion told Nairobi News.
The union gave Labour Secretary Kazungu Kambi and TSC a seven-day strike notice, saying they had exhausted all avenues of consultation.
“Please take notice that on the expiry of this notice, if no solution will have been found, all members of Knut shall commence the strike, as directed by the Annual Delegates Conference (ADC),” Sossion said.
INDUSTRIAL ACTION
The notice for the industrial action that is set to disrupt the first term of the academic calendar is copied to Education Secretary Prof Jacob Kaimenyi and TSC Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni.
If the parties involved fail to find a solution, within the seven-day period, the strike will commence on January 6, which is the official opening date of all public primary and secondary schools.
This development is certain to offer both teachers and the learners an extended holiday, coming on the back of a seven week break leading to the Christmas festivities.
Sossion said that TSC had failed to give any counter offer to the union’s demands even after the union dropped its 300 per cent salary increase demand to 150 per cent.
Prof Kaimenyi and Mr Lengoiboni have been urging the teachers to abandon their hardline positions and agree on payments that the economy can sustain.
Early this month, Prof Kaimenyi warned teachers to stop issuing ultimatums to the government after the teacher’s union made numerous threats for a nationwide strike if their demands for a salary increment are not met.