Teachers warn of strike over salary row as schools set to re-open

Teachers have given their employer five days to increase their basic pay by 50-60 per cent, after the Supreme Court upheld the ruling of a lower court.

Their unions on Wednesday said they would call a nationwide strike unless the money is paid by the end of the month.

The threat comes less than a week to the start of the third term on Monday. However, the Teachers Service Commission asked the unions to let their members report to work as talks with the government continue.

The National Treasury has warned that increasing teachers' salaries will slow down economic growth, which had been forecast to grow at seven per cent this financial year.

A Treasury official on Wednesday said that if the government pays the extra Sh17 billion needed for the enhanced salaries, the economy is likely to grow by a slower 6.5 per cent.

Kenya has 288,060 teachers and their salaries consume 5.6 per cent of the national budget.

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich had allocated Sh181.4 billion for teachers' salaries this year. Following the Supreme Court ruling on Monday, the government will be required to raise the additional Sh17 billion.

Teachers’ salaries take up 38 per cent of the Sh418 billion public wage bill.

NOTHING ELSE TO DISCUSS

On Wednesday, Kenya National Union of Teachers Secretary-General Wilson Sossion said there was nothing else to discuss unless the government tops up the August pay to comply with the court order.

After meeting with Teachers Service Commission officials in Nairobi, Mr Sossion said: “Our intention in the meeting was to ensure that the court order is complied with. We are giving (officials) five days, and if by midnight of August 31, the money is not in the teachers’ accounts, we will down our tools.”

The commission’s head of communication, Mr Kihumba Kamotho, told reporters that officials had asked the unions not to disrupt the reopening of schools.

“We called them to ask if they would ask the teachers to return to work on Monday. There are lives of 10 million children at stake,” said Mr Kamotho.

The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers had boycotted the meeting between the commission and Knut.

“The court ruling was elaborate and self-explanatory. We therefore refused to attend the meeting because that was a tactic to delay the implementation of the award,” said Mr Akelo Misori, Kuppet's secretary-general. “What we are expecting is a meeting to sign a Collective Bargaining Agreement as directed by the Labour and Employment Court.”

POSSIBLE BUDGET CUTS

Mr Sossion, on the other hand, asked Parliament to direct the National Treasury to release the funds by end of the month.

On Tuesday, National Treasury Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge told the National Assembly’s Finance Committee that budget cuts were likely because the government was hesitant to borrow money or raise taxes to plug the deficit caused by the ruling.

The 50 to 60 per cent basic salary increase for teachers translates into an annual raise of between 12.5 and 15 per cent over four years.

A P1 teacher in Job Group G, the lowest-paid category, will take home Sh26,707, up from the current Sh16,692, once the salaries are reviewed.

The best-paid teacher, a chief principal in Job Group R, will earn Sh163,634, up from Sh109,089.

On Tuesday, lawyers representing Knut urged the Teachers Service Commission to top up teachers’ August salaries with the new award. This is after the Supreme Court dismissed a plea by the commission to reverse Court of Appeal orders directing the government to pay the new salaries.

The commission had argued that a pay increase of between 50 and 60 per cent could not be implemented because it was unconstitutional and the raise would not be rescinded if it won the case.