Teachers Service Commission (TSC) vows to appeal court verdict

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has vowed to appeal the hefty salary award for the 288,000 teachers, saying there was no justification for the court's judgement.

The teachers' employer also said it is currently cash-strapped and unable to implement the salary increase, noting it requires an additional Sh70 billion.

The Standard has established that the decision to appeal the court decision was arrived at during a meeting that took place at the Attorney General's office on Tuesday.

Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), Ministry of Labour, TSC and Ministry of Education representatives were present at the meeting.

Yesterday, TSC Chair Lydia Nzomo said justification for the 50 to 60 per cent pay rise was not clear in the verdict. Dr Nzomo also said the job evaluation exercise would have yielded the justification for any increase.

"The current government policy is to carry out a job evaluation for all public sector employees in order to determine comparable and relative worth of jobs and produce a rationalised, harmonised and equitable job grading structure," said Nzomo.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion however dared the commission to challenge the award in court. "That will be another injury on top of an injury. The Government runs through the Constitution and it must respect the Constitution and the agencies created by the Constitution," said Sossion.

He said teachers will demand full payment of their salaries, complete with arrears. "Let them try and they will face us. It would be ridiculous for them to deny teachers a legitimate offer that was arrived at after all parties made submissions before the court," said Sossion. Nzomo said the evaluation exercise has kicked off and noted that it shall provide the justification for any pay review.

"We are not against teachers getting better pay but what we are saying is that we did not see the justification in the ruling," said Nzomo. She said TSC has strong ground to challenge the court decision. "After a careful study of the ruling, the commission has resolved to immediately appeal the judgement of the Employment and Labour Relations Court in the Court of Appeal," said Dr Nzomo.

Teachers service commission Chairperson Lydia Nzomo (left)TSC CEO Nancy Macharia (center) and TSC commissioner Salome Gichura addressing the press at Teachers service commission offices.
(PHOTO: BEVERLYNE MUSILI)

 Nzomo said the Commission does not have the capacity to effect the salary award. "Implementation of the ruling will require an additional Sh70 billion based on the current establishment and without factoring in employment of additional teachers," said Nzomo.

She said TSC's immediate requirement to pay arrears accruing from July 1, 2013 to date is some Sh51 billion. "These funds are not available. They have not been budgeted for in the 2015/2016 financial year," she said.

She however said TSC had budgeted for the implementation of State's offer of increased house, hardship allowances and the newly introduced leave allowance.