KNUT and TSC Meet As Teachers’ Pay Rise Takes Center Stage
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and teachers’ unions are set to meet to deliberate on a review of the non-monetary Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to allow for a salary increase for teachers.
Teachers’ unions will meet with the teachers’ employers this week to deliberate on career advancement guidelines and the possibility of a pay rise for teachers.
According to Collins Oyuu, the Secretary-General of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) revealed that the union and TSC are set to meet in Naivasha to discuss an Education Committee report and teacher’s professional development training among other issues concerning teachers across the country.
Collins Oyuu revealed that the meeting will be held starting on Tuesday evening and reach a conclusion at the end of the week on Friday.
Oyuu said that they are hoping to restart the discussion regarding the review of the 2021 -25 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which did not include a pay rise for teachers.
The CBA now allows male teachers to take paternity leave with teachers from arid and semi-arid areas set to be promoted.
In the new CBA new the Commission reviewed areas that are hard to staff with teachers who work in hardship areas set to be promoted.
Oyuu also revealed that the union has recruited 100,000 new members with the union now having 115,000 members. This represents a significant rise compared to the 15,000 as of June 26 last year.
“When I came in as secretary-general, KNUT had many challenges ranging from low membership, financial starvation, to a bad blood that had been created and existed with TSC,” said Oyuu to the Sunday Nation.
At the moment, KNUT had 110 KNUT branches that are fully operational, with all employees receiving their salaries on time, staff medical coverage has also been restored and the union is gradually repaying the arrears accumulated over two years before Oyuu’s tenure.
As a result of the union’s financial problems, several KNUT branches were closed and office equipment such as chairs, desks and computers auctioned off.
Despite the restored strength of KNUT as a union, Oyuu and some union officials have faced criticism for compromising the position of the union in order to please the teachers’ employers.
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