Court to give verdict on teachers' pay dispute

Tuesday's expected judgement by the Employment and Labour Relations Court regarding a disputed pay increase could be a landmark decision for 288,000 teachers.

Teachers, their employer the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Ministry of Education have said they look forward to the decision.

The judgement, due to be delivered by Industrial Court judge Nduma Nderi, should settle the long-running pay row the court has been arbitrating since January when parties agreed to the Judiciary's intervention to end a nationwide teachers' strike.

Monday, officials of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education (Kuppet), who filed a joint petition detailing 37 items to justify the payment of new salaries, allowances and other benefits for their members, expressed optimism that the court would rule in their favour.

Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion and his Kuppet counterpart Akello Misori Monday said today's decision is critical to teachers after a long wait.

"We shall all troop to the court because teachers want a salary raise and a comprehensive Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The various arms of Government had placed something on the table and we are hopeful with the ruling," said Sossion.

Misori said: "We have done our part as unions and it's for the court to decide. TSC and CPMU (Central Planning and Monitoring Unit) had both proposed to give teachers something. We look forward to the ruling."

CPMU was also party to the dispute.

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission's role in determining teachers' basic pay is also to be determined after their unions challenged its mandate in the review process.

Rejected offer

And the TSC shall also be advised whether they have abdicated their core mandate of determining their employees' salaries as was claimed by the unions in their suit papers.

The unions demanded a 300 per cent salary raise alongside a raft of allowances which they wanted met before they could call off a strike.

But after many meetings with the Government, the unions scaled down their demands to 150 per cent and noted that the allowances would come after a salary hike.

Knut and Kuppet maintained an increase on basic salary was mandatory as it would set the pace for a CBA.

But TSC said only Sh9.3 billion was available to enhance teachers' allowances. The money would cater for housing, commuting, hardship and leave allowances under the offer.

In addition to these, teachers were promised study and sabbatical leaves and elongation of their grades. The two unions had rejected the offer.

The employer also wanted teachers to get leave allowance, which would be paid once a year with effect from July 1, 2015.

Other allowances proposed by TSC were special schools and units allowances. These were to be pegged on a flat rate of Sh10,000. Currently the rate ranges from Sh1,669 to Sh10,908.

Teachers of persons with visual impairment were also promised a readers' allowance pegged at a flat rate of Sh15,000, up from Sh7,785.

Teachers were also to get special a allowance during official assignments away from their stations. But TSC said if the demands by the unions are met, the wage bill would be unsustainable.

SRC chairperson Sarah Serem said a comprehensive job evaluation would determine the true pay for teachers and asked the court to quash teachers demands.

A stalemate ensued and the court assumed arbitration role after the TSC and the two teachers unions failed to agree.

The matter got more complicated after the Labour ministry's CPMU filed a document asking the court to consider awarding teachers a 128 per cent salary raise, translating to Sh137 billion annually.

Suspended Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi told the court CPMU did not consult his office before filing the document, and requested that it be expunged from court records, but Justice Nderi declined.