Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) is aware that despite the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) going to great pains to convince both the Departmental Committee on Education and Research and the Budget and Appropriation Committee why the Commission’s budget of Sh357, 773,737,118 should not be reduced, the National Treasury has gone ahead to cut the budget by Shs10 billion. The act of reducing the budget has led to the commission not being able to implement the second and final phase of the 2021-2025 CBA.
Collective Bargaining Agreements in Kenya are key industrial relations tools through which employers and workers’ representatives negotiate the terms and conditions of employment, but majorly on growing benefits as workers continue discharging their duties in their employment.
The regulations of the CBAs are laid down in the Industrial Relations Charter released in 1957 and revised in 1984, the constitution and the labour laws in Kenya. It is noteworthy that a CBA becomes enforceable when it is registered with the Employment and Labour Relations Court, which was duly done for the current cycle.
In light of the decision taken by the National Treasury, and the failure of the two parliamentary committees to convince the government not to whittle down the TSC budget, which has certainly affected the implementation of the Second Phase of the 2021-2025 CBA, confirmation of the 46,000 Junior School intern teachers to permanent and pensionable terms and promotion of teachers in the 2024/2025 financial year, KNUT emphatically states that the CBA is a legal and binding document that was rightly deposited in the Employment and Labour Relations Court. There is therefore no way the National Treasury, which is fully aware of the existence and content of the Agreement, can backtrack on the it by failing to fund TSC adequately to be able to meet its contractual obligations.
KNUT is aware that the country is going through hard economic times and wishes to remind the nation that the 2.5 to 9 per cent salary award granted in this CBA through a review in 2023 was the bare minimum teachers could go after adverse consultations.
The implementation of the 2021/2025 CBA therefore, should not whatsoever be tied to the Finance Bill, or the Appropriation Bill 2024 as the TSC/KNUT Agreement was negotiated and signed in 2021, and appropriately factored in the 2021/2025 contractual spending of the National Government. Thus, the National Treasury has zero option but to fund TSC adequately to meet its financial obligations.
KNUT is calling upon the Treasury to restore unconditionally the Shs10 billion it reduced from the TSC budget since the reduction amounts to a violation of the CBA. It is an act of treachery, breach of contract and a violation of teachers’ labour rights if TSC goes on and fails to honour this CBA among other outstanding obligations. Further, it should be noted that the CBA has not been withdrawn by either of the two parties -TSC and KNUT- hence the Agreement has to be implemented to the letter.
KNUT calls on TSC to use all means within its reach to ensure that the Agreement which is legal and still binding is honoured through compelling the National Assembly to approve TSC’s Shs357, 773,737,118 budget without amendments. To this end, the National Government should live up to its promise of awarding teachers salary increments as stipulated in the amended 2021/2025 CBA.
Moreover, the Budget and Appropriation Committee should accordingly allocate enough funds to the Commission for the implementation of the CBA without delay; failure to which KNUT would use all constitutional avenues to press for teachers’ duly awarded salary increments.
Failing to implement the 2nd phase of the award at this time when teachers are undergoing hard economic times with skyrocketing prices in consumer goods and general service costs will greatly demoralise them, demotivate them and render them unable to deliver quality education to our children. A teacher with a low-quality life cannot deliver quality education. Teachers who cannot afford decent housing, medical attention and pay school fees for their children may not be able to give their best at work.
Although the Union is keen on building new approaches in managing labour relations with her social partners, we are afraid the act of failing to honour this CBA to its fullness may retrogress all the gains made in enhancing modern world labour relations. Teachers may not be pushed to understand the nation’s economic challenges if the nation is not willing to understand theirs.
Additionally, we are afraid the beginning of third term of 2024 may be interrupted if the government does not act fast. Being aware that both the first and the second terms were affected by insecurity in some parts, destructive floods and anti-government protests; the sector has been and continues to create more time to cover for the losses incurred in terms of teaching and learning, this must be guarded jealously to ensure as much content as possible is disseminated.
It is also important to note that KNUT is in the early preparations of the 2025/2029 CBA and failure to honour the lapsing one will negatively impact the incoming one. The government has time to right these wrongs by building trust among stakeholders by honoring their pledges, and that is our prayer!
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