The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has revealed that negotiations on the 2021-2025 non-monetary Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) will start in January 2023.
The TSC Director of Legal, Labour and Industrial Relations Cavin Anyuor confirmed that they had received more than seven letters from the KUPPET Secretary-General Akelo Misori demanding for a mid-term review of the CBA which is actually in 2023.
“What I know from a technical point of view is that we are going to meet KUPPET very early in January 2023 to jump-start the negotiations,” said Anyuor.
This came after the union held their 24th Annual Delegates Conference (ADC) on the 10th of December in Murang’a where Misori said that this time they will take the ‘bull by its horns’ in the coming year. The last salary increment for teachers came in 2020 when the last phase of the previous 2016-2021 CBA was implemented.
“If teachers do not obtain new salaries by July 2023, they would have gone one CBA cycle without salary reviews, since the most consequential increment in CBAs comes within the first three years,” said Misori.
Misori said that since 2020, all other cadres I n the public service including employees of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC), County Government and semi-autonomous government agencies received salary increments. He also said that teachers should not be an exception.
On his part the union’s National Chairman Hon. Omboko Milemba who is also the Emuhaya Member of Parliament (MP) uttered similar sentiments adding that the current CBA was a bitter pill they had swallowed to safeguard previous gains in the previous CBA.
“In June 2021, 23 signed a non-monetary CBA. It was a bitter pill to swallow, and we did so to safeguard and protect the previous gains. It was the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic and after a negative advisory from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) on the suspension of pubic sector CBAs for a period of two years.
“We need to own our decisions and now focus on giving our members a new monetary CBA. That is the journey we are currently undertaking,” said Milemba.
Hesbon Otieno, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Deputy Secretary General also emphasized the same while addressing the KUPPET delegates at the ADC.
KUPPET wants classroom teachers to get a salary increment of 70% and administrators to receive a 30% increase.
“Teachers in grades C2 and C3 to have a higher increment of 70% while those in D4 and D5 to have a 30 per cent salary increment,” read the union’s proposal on the CBA.
This means that the lowest teacher’s job grade C2 will earn a proposed salary of Kshs. 59,425 from the current Kshs. 34,955 on the minimum and a proposed Kshs. 74,280 from the current 43,694 on the maximum. The highest teacher’s job grade D4 will take home a proposed salary of around Kshs. 153,715 as compared to the current Kshs. 118,242 on the minimum and Kshs. 184,458 as compared to the current 141,891 on the maximum.
KUPPET also wants new allowances besides to what teachers have currently under the 2021-2025 CBA.
These allowances are at risk, over time, post-graduate and accommodation allowances.