Give us a counter offer, teachers urge SRC

Teachers have raised concern over delayed talks on new salaries, three months to the end of Sh54 billion Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

A meeting between Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) and the teachers’ employer this week heard that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) is yet to give advisory for the talks.

Kuppet officials said time is running out for the talks as the 2016-2021 CBA lapses end of June.

“We are seriously concerned by this delay by SRC since expiry of the current CBA on June 30 is fast approaching,” said Akello Misori, Kuppet secretary general in a statement after the meeting.

The statement came after a four-day meeting with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) management and technical team in Naivasha.

Mr Misori said the union and TSC have so far played their role in the talks and blamed the delayed process on SRC.

“What remains is for the SRC to give its advisory to TSC to enable the employer table a counter offer to the union,” said Misori.

Kuppet has already pitched a salary increment of between 30 and 70 per cent for the new CBA. This meant that the lowest paid teachers would get the higher percentage with highest paid teachers getting the lower percentage.

The Kuppet proposal would see the lowest-paid teachers’ salaries rise from Sh21,756 to Sh36,985 while those in higher cadres under Job Group D4 who currently earn Sh118,242 would take home Sh153,714.

Sources, however, hinted that the union had further adjusted their salary proposal to between 45 to 60 per cent, after lobbying.

TSC sent its proposed salary offer of between 16 to 32 per cent to the SRC on September 29, last year.

In the letter to SRC, TSC Chief Executive Nancy Macharia, recommended that teachers below Grade CA to D5 get a 16 per cent salary increment while teachers in Grade B5 to C3 would get a 32 per cent raise.

Reviewed proposal

“This is therefore to submit to your office the TSC recommendations for your advisory on the remuneration of teachers for the next CBA as required by the Constitution and the law to enable us commence and conclude the 2021-2025 CBA with recognised teacher unions on time,” Dr Macharia said.

It however emerged that TSC is considering a reviewed proposal of between 20 and 35 per cent.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) which had proposed a salary increment of between 120 and 200 per cent was not party to the Naivasha meeting.

Knut proposal means the monthly basic salary for the lowest-paid teachers (Grade B5) would be raised from Sh21,756 to a maximum of Sh87,024 while salaries of the highest-paid teachers (Grade D5) would be increased from Sh131,380 to a maximum Sh394,140.

By close of the four days meeting, it emerged that Kuppet was pushing for classroom teachers to get higher pay as the present job evaluation favoured administrators.

“Kuppet and TSC have developed a new Job Description capturing the true worth of a classroom teacher. The new descriptions recognise the teachers’ leadership and technical work within and outside classroom, which had been ignored by the evaluation tool previously used by SRC,” reads Kuppet statement.

The meeting heard that there are up to 30 new roles of classroom teachers including class management and substantial financial responsibility during outdoor activities like tours and sports.

The statement resonates with the SRC report which disclosed that the last job evaluation was skewed, favouring school heads while leaving classroom teachers broke.

The report shows the present job descriptions of the classroom teachers, based on the 2016/2017 evaluation, grossly undervalued their worth, resulting in poor pay.

“There were significant disparities in the compensation and career progression between the institutional administrators and classroom teachers in the teaching profession as the job evaluation results for 2016/2017 did not adequately cater for the remuneration of classroom teachers. This might be attributed to poor development of job descriptions in 2016,” reads the report.

The good news for classroom teachers however is that results of the 2021/2022 – 2021/2025 remuneration review cycle, which will be used to negotiate the next phase of teachers’ salaries now captures their true worth and outlines an elaborate job description.

The new job evaluation also recognises classroom teachers’ new tasks under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), which also gives them supervisory roles.

The statement by Kuppet on delay on tabling a counter offer by SRC dashed hopes of thousands of teachers who hoped that the meeting would yield some hope for the talks.

It, however, emerged that the meeting did not substantively delve into the next 2021-2025 CBA details but spent more time resolving administrative changes under the present 2016-2021 deal.

The meeting agreed that promotion of C3 teachers and Teachers Training Colleges tutors be addressed.

This as it emerged that job re-evaluation has resulted in the creation of a new opening in C4 for Senior Master IV and Senior Lecturer IV for those in TTCs who do not have administrative positions.

“At the moment, the Commission has advertised 6,680 vacancies for these cadres as the first step towards institutionalizing C4 as a promotional grade from C3,” said Misori.

The Kuppet statement further said that under the CBC, the TTC tutors will be training teachers at diploma level hence the repositioning of their roles.

“Administrators in TTCs including deans and registrars will have career path with substantive appointments,” reads the statement.

The meeting also addressed the diploma teachers career path. It emerged that when the 2016 CBA commenced, more than half of teachers who had joined service at Job Group J had obtained bachelors of education degrees and transited to graduate scheme of service.

Kuppet also said that TSC agreed to suspend the requirements of Master’s degree for principals or other promotions within the teaching service.