Teachers Service Commission adds paternity, maternity leave offs

Teachers Service Commission CEO Dr Nancy Macharia addressing the press at a past event [Samson Wire. Standard.]

Female teachers can now apply for four-month maternity leave. This after the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) increased the maternity and paternity leaves with full pay.

Female teachers will get four months’ maternity leave while male ones will be entitled to 21 days' paternity leave.

The development is in partial fulfillment of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (2021-2025) package, which has specific provisions for maternity, paternity and pre-adoptive leave.

“Female employees shall be entitled to 120 calendar days with full pay, with effect from the date of delivery, and the teacher shall not forfeit her annual leave on account of having taken maternity leave,” said the commission's Executive Officer Nancy Macharia in a statement.

Male teachers will be eligible for paternity leave of 21 calendar days, with full pay once a year within the duration of the spouse's maternity leave, while teachers seeking pre-adoptive time are now eligible for 45 calendar days, with full pay from the date of adoption.

In the new CBA, which took effect from July 2021, teachers successfully bargained for increased maternity and paternity leave days from the previous 90 days and 14 days for men and women, respectively, to the now implemented 120 days and 21 days.

The agreement was signed between TSC and teachers’ unions.

The CEO said the commission had successfully migrated services related to leave application for teachers to an online platform, as part of the 2019-2023 Strategic Plan.

“The Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) Leave Module for teachers was effected from November 1, 2021, and subsequently the leave application process has been executed seamlessly,” read the statement.