Hope for teachers as salary talks resume

Kenya: Teachers’ salary talks resume on Friday, with unions hoping the Government will table a substantive counter-offer to their demands for higher pay.

The talks will however proceed without the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni, who is out of the country on official duty.

Consultative Committee on Terms and Conditions of Teachers Chairman Joseph Obonyo will chair the meeting.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) officials yesterday confirmed they will attend the meeting today.

Kuppet Secretary General Akelo Misori however warned they will seek legal redress to compel the State to fix time-lines for the negotiations if today’s meeting flops.

Misori, who had last week declared Kuppet won’t attend any further talks, said the meeting will be the turning point in the pay talks stalemate.

Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion however said they will “faithfully negotiate to the end”.

“We cannot walk out of talks. We shall stay put until we get something for teachers,” said Sossion.

This means the strike threat by Knut has been shelved to a later date.

“We cannot afford to disrupt our children’s time in school when we still have time to patiently sit and talk,” said Sossion. He said Knut does not intend to create anxiety at a time when learners are sitting national examinations.

“How foolish can we be to disrupt national examinations when these teachers have taken time to prepare the candidates to write the papers?” he asked.

Sossion said there is no crisis and added that Knut officials will be patient during the talks.

Misori however said Kuppet will instruct its lawyers to move to court and seek prayers that they give time-lines on pay negotiations. He also said they will seek to compel the Government to issue them with a letter of disagreement if today’s meeting does not yield any fruits.

“Should our fears be confirmed that there is still a stalemate, our lawyers are on firm instructions to engage the employer in court,” said Misori.

The two unions have held five meetings at the TSC head office, with the Government making no counter offer to the raft of demands placed by teachers.

The Government withdrew the Sh50 billion offer it secretly tabled after the Salary and Remuneration Commission protested.

 

The salaries team said there was no justification for the hefty salary hike and noted that any increment must take into consideration economic growth, prevailing labour market rates among other parameters.

 MEDICAL COVER

Lengoiboni yesterday said talks will continue until a solution is found. “We shall make sure we agree. We must consult and I am thankful for the patience and maturity that unions have demonstrated so far,” he said.

Speaking on telephone from Canada, Lengoiboni asked the unions to be patient and stick to the negotiation table until an agreeable solution is found. “I request them to attend the meeting because talks will continue from where we left last week,” he said.

Misori however said Kuppet is aware that a section of the committee members are reluctant to have the demands they tabled addressed because only those in post primary will benefit.

Unions have presented over 30 demands that they want met. Documents from TSC revealed the unions had scaled down on some of their demands during the last meeting.

Misori on Thursday maintained that Kuppet would not cede any ground on the demands they have tabled before the teachers’ employer, saying the economic circumstances have dictated the clamour for high pay and other allowances.

He said of concern to teachers is an increase in house allowance since majority of teachers cannot afford exorbitant rental houses and the incomprehensive medical cover offered by the National Hospital Insurance Fund.

“Most of the issues were isolated in 2012 and what the teachers are demanding is justifiable. Most teachers cannot even afford to pay school fees for their children in places where they teach,” said Misori.

Kuppet is of the view that teachers should be given a 400 per cent comprehensive medical cover to enable them afford decent medication as opposed to current cover which they claim cannot cater for the highest attainable treatment.