In accordance with the Labor Relations Act, 14 of 2007, a trade union that has signed a recognition agreement with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) shall have its dues deducted from the salaries of its members who have joined voluntarily, signed and then submitted a prescribed membership form and authorized the Commission to deduct union dues at the source.
In Kenya, there are three trade unions that TSC recognizes to which teachers can choose to be members. The three trade unions for teachers are:
- The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT).
- The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET)
- The Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers (KUSNET).
Besides, TSC is required to deduct and then pay to a trade union an agency fee from the salary of every ‘unionisable’ employee who is not a member of the union but has benefited from a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that is negotiated and concluded between the union and the Commission as per part VI of the Labour Relations Act 14 of 2007.
How a teacher can stop a Third Party Transaction
Every third party has the responsibility of stopping deductions of an employee who has discharged his/her liabilities with the firm.
A third party shall stop deductions for a discharged liability not later than three (3) days from the date of such clearance by the employee.
If a third party does not stop a deduction as stipulated in sub-clause 12.1 above, the Commission, upon receiving authenticated instructions from the employee, shall stop the deduction without reference to the third party.
When a stop order is not effected and an overpayment is made to the third party, the same shall be recovered from the third party’s subsequent remittance and refunded to the employee.
An employee may discontinue voluntary payroll deductions by providing a written notification to the Third Party firm. For the purposes of this subsection, the voluntary contribution shall not include the un-discharged liabilities of the employee.
The commission reserves the right to stop any deduction regardless of whether the third party has issued a stop order, or not.