Civil servants and teachers have had their hopes over the July payrise dented after the government rejected an Sh. 68 billion requests to finance the increment of allowances and salaries starting on the 1st of July, 2021.
According to reports in the standard, the National Treasury has written to the salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) informing them that their request has been turned down. The funds would have made it possible to fund the next phase of reviews of salaries and allowances.
This follows the government’s move to strike a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a loan that has put the state’s finances in order.
The National Treasury officials agreed with the IMF to cut the government’s wage bill substantially.
According to officials from the Treasury, cutting the wage bill can help the country save large chunks of money that could be used to “protect high priority social and development spending in the context of limited fiscal space”. This is in the quote of the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani and Central Bank of Kenya Governor Dr. Patrick Njoroge. This was in a letter to the IMF managing director.
“This will be accomplished through continued restraint in hiring and wage awards (including in the 4-year wage agreement that will come into effect in FY2021/2022) and by improved wage bill management,” said the Treasury.
All civil servants who had a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) have been expecting pay rise as the current financial year ends but it seems that those hopes have suffered a huge dent.
The total pay-out is Sh. 68 billion and not the Sh. 83 billion that the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) was pushing for, thanks to the much-publicized issues with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
It is believed that out of these funds, the National Treasury has committed just 10 percent or Sh. 8 billion. Yesterday, CS Ukur Yatani said that the 10 percent allocation totaling a figure of Sh. 8 billion for the financial year 2021/2022 is for civil servants and teachers.
SRC has today held a meeting with the chairperson of the Council of Governors (CoG) as SRC seeks to manage what is potentially looking a full-blown labor crisis.
The government is now at its limits as it has had to cope with the COVID-19 crisis while prioritizing the CBAs for all sectors that are sensitive. This includes teachers, security, and health by the end of the financial years in June.
The government is mulling over whether to invoke a clause under the four-year agreement that allows it to free payout in cases of issues like the pandemic.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has assured the teachers’ union that talks over salaries would commence as soon as the SRC gets awarded the funds from the Treasury. The funds were to dictate the direction of the negotiations.
The SRC had requested the funds to harmonize workers’ pay and to effect a new salary raise once job evaluation is completed.
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) are set to end on the 30th of June, allowing the next four-year cycle of remuneration based on job evaluations. This now seems to hang in the balance as shows the government may not provide the funds.
Classroom teachers have been notably underpaid in the current CBA, will be the most affected since they were set to be the main beneficiaries of the next CBA.
“It is a fact that the treasury has rejected this money demanded by SRC and this will be a major setback to all workers in the country,” said Wilson Sossion yesterday.
Sossion said that out of the total amount of money that SRC demanded from the treasury, SRC was to allocate Sh. 32 billion to the Teachers Service Commission.
“To our surprise, the Treasury only said it can raise Sh. 6 billion. And it means that TSC may only get less than Sh. 2 billion for the next four years.
“Compare this to the Sh. 54 billion CBA that is coming to an end and you see this is a joke,” said Sossion as he implored the Treasury to release the fund,” said Wilson Sossion.