President Uhuru Kenyatta has directed the Teachers Service Commission to pay September salaries for teachers and initiate negotiations with KNUT and KUPPET which will see teachers receiving pay increment.
“In the spirit of reconciliation and consideration, I urge the Teachers’ Service Commission to consider paying all the teachers their September 2015 salaries and union dues at the earliest opportunity”, said the president
He gave the directive after meeting KNUT and KUPPET officials on Tuesday at State House Nairobi.The President further directed the Salaries and Renumeration Commission, KUPPET, KNUT and TSC to resolve teachers’ pay issue once and for all.
“1. That all parties will withdraw all the cases related to the disputes that remain pending in our courts.
2. That further to today’s agreement all matters pertaining to the dispute will be concluded through negotiation.
3. That immediately after the cases are withdrawn, the TSC and KNUT will meet and begin dialogue. The point of those talks is to come up with a four-year collective bargaining agreement which will, at a minimum, address the following points:
1. Full recognition of the binding advisory by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (src) on the salaries and remuneration of teachers.
2. There must also be full recognition of a basic point: equal pay for equal work. We are in public service, and we have a duty to manage public funds equitably and effectively. It is inequitable and ineffective to pay some more than others when both are doing the same work.
3. The necessary first step to ending that inequity and ineffectiveness is a job-evaluation exercise, where we determine the level of performance of public officers. We will then be in a position to see what various employees at various levels should be paid. That includes all of us: myself, the Deputy President, Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, MPs and all who earn from monies collected from the taxpayer. This is why it is critical that the src be allowed to fast-track and complete its job evaluation for all public servants”read the President’s speech in parts.
The meeting came following KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion’s threat that the members will vote out Jubilee administration in 2017.Sossion claimed that the government influenced court’s decision that led to the dismissal of the 50-60 % teachers’ pay increment.
The union has over 280,000 members, if they decide to campaign against the President, Uhuru might find himself in Gatundu after the 2017 elections. That’s why he cannot take teachers for granted.
