At last, there is light at the end of the tunnel as teachers who are members of the Kenya National Union of Teachers are set to receive a huge windfall as new leaders seem to have struck a deal with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
KNUT members have not been earning what they deserve as they have been missing out on twice the amount of benefits of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that ended this June. The KNUT members have been suffering the most as Wilson Sossion’s KNUT fight with the Commission affected their earnings.
Despite the tussle, good news found its way to the teachers that KNUT and TSC have struck an agreement that is set to earn a huge reward for the union members.
It has been revealed that TSC will backdate payments made to the teachers to enjoy the two salary increments that they missed out on.
For simple KNUT members are set to earn an amount of Sh. 8,000 and Sh. 15,000 respectively to cover the amounts they missed out on in the years 2019 and 2020. Their counterparts belonging to the Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET) were still earning their dues in that duration.
The implementation of the 2017-2021 CBA meant teachers who used to be in job group B5 taking home a basic salary of Sh. 21,345 being moved to job group C1 and receiving a salary of Sh. 8,000.
The teachers also saw allowances raised by a good margin as they earned a house allowance of Sh. 4,200, a commuter allowance of Sh. 4,000 and hardship allowance of Sh. 8,200.
Headteachers and their deputies who have been KNUT members have missed out on benefits gotten from the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
A headteacher who has earned his salary increment, for instance, has been earning around Sh. 62,272 as their KNUT counterpart earns Sh. 45,000 suffer and miss out on 12,272. Such a huge difference in pay affected teachers while the union leaders tussled with TSC.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will now meet the officials of KNUT in the coming week to discuss issues that led to the halting of negotiations on the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
The new KNUT secretary-general Collins Oyuu has told teachers to go back to their union and believe in the new leadership.
The Commission opened the Portal to join or leave any union or association this week as bridges seem to have been built with a seemingly good relationship between KNUT and TSC in the offing.
The KNUT Deputy Secretary-General Hesbon Otieno revealed that TSC’s move to open the portal is Step One of the restoration of the former glorious union.
“Teachers who believe in the union and the new leadership now have the opportunity to return to the union. This even as we are still negotiating with the employer on different ways of navigating these challenges,” said Otieno.
Otieno said that the union is set to embark on a drive of attracting members to return to the union.
Unfortunately, it seems the new KNUT leaders did not manage to immediately get back the teachers who had been registered to the union as of June 2019. In June 2019, KNUT has 187,471 members which meant the union had some Sh. 144 million in union dues.