Over 1400 Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers in Taita Taveta County are on strike over a delay in remitting statutory deductions amounting to millions of shillings.
Multiple interviews with the tutors complained that the continued delay in remittance of cooperative loans, Pay as You Earn (PAYE), National Social Security Fund (NSSF), and National Health Insurance Fund (NSSF) deductions was impacting negatively on their wellbeing and staff creditworthiness.
Other than delayed statutory deductions, the workers also accused the executive of delaying payment of staff allowances like lunches and per diem.
Yesterday, County Woman representative Lydia Haika urged the governor to intervene and address the matter without further delay to ensure smooth operations of the 334 ECDE centres with over 12,000 pupils in the region.
“It is a sad state of affairs that ECDE tutors are at home due to non-payment of their statutory deductions. The governor should move with speed to ensure that the challenges facing the teachers are adequately addressed for the smooth operations of the centres,” said the ruling coalition legislator.
At the same time, Haika noted that community health promoters are also facing challenges in getting monthly stipends from the county government.
Under the stipend, the county and national governments are required to co-share Sh 5000 with each, paying Sh 2500.
“The national government has been paying its share on time, but we have had challenges from the county government. The CHP plays a key role in promoting health care at the grass-roots level, and the executive should stop dragging its feet on the issue,” stated Haika.
The strike comes at a time when the county government is still grappling with huge pending bills and a bloated workforce.
Last week contractors stormed the governor's offices in Mwatate town, demanding payment of the dues for providing goods and services. The county government owes contractors and suppliers over Sh 2 billion in pending bills since 2013.
The striking workers noted that the affected staff noted that they cannot receive loans and medical treatment at their respective hospitals due to failure by the executive to remit the statutory deductions.
“Our accounts for the statutory deductions are dormant, yet we are being deducted from our monthly payslips. The deductions are not remitted to their respective accounts, and we cannot receive the required services like loans and medical cover since January this year,” noted an ECEE identified as only Chao.
“We have met the assembly members and told him of our suffering for the house to intervene and compel the executive to remit all the statutory deduction owed to us for the sake of us and our families.
Our lives are in danger as we do not have medical cover,” the teacher told The Standard in Wundanyi town yesterday.
“We have decided to down tools before reporting the matter to state agencies like the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) for action,” added another tutor.
The workers further expressed concerns that defaulting cases had led to the accrual of penalties and other unprecedented costs, which the workers will be liable to pay.
“We are demanding the assembly to enforce timely remittance of statutory deductions and measures to be put in place to mitigate these challenges to ensure that in the future statutory deductions are remitted on time,” added one of the workers.
Earlier, ODM-nominated MCA Nancy Mwakio demanded to know how soon the county government was remitting the mandatory statutory deductions.
