Big win for teachers as court upholds pay rise ruling

The Court of Appeal has ordered the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to implement the 50-60% pay rise given to teachers by the Industrial and Labour Relations Court starting August 1st, 2015.

A three judge bench led by Justice Mohamed Warsame made the ruling ordering TSC to pay the teachers new basic salary as was ordered by the Labour court pending hearing of its (TSC’s) appeal on September 22nd, 2015 failure to which the petition will dismissed with cost to it.

TSC had moved to the Court of Appeal, under a certificate of urgency protesting the ruling by the Labour Relations Court giving teachers a 50 – 60% pay rise.

TSC argued that it was not party to any consent on the issue as they did not sign any agreement.

TSC says Justice Nduma Nderi was out of jurisdiction in determining teachers’ pay since TSC has a committee mandated to deal with teachers’ remunerations.

The commission further argued that the judge is only mandated to oversee the negotiations and not determine what teachers should be paid.

The teachers’ employer said they were ready to negotiate with teachers before the court made the ruling.

The appeal was heard by a three judge bench led by Justice Mohamed Warsame despite the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) seeking his disqualification from hearing the case on the basis that he has been involved in salaries negotiations before, hence his presence in the bench might influence the outcome of the matter.

The Employment and Labor Relations Court had earlier ordered the government to give teachers a basic salary increment of 50 – 60% from July 1^st, 2013 to June 30^th, 2017 which was blatantly brushed away by TSC.

TSC demanded that the teachers ought to go through a salary review process just like other public servant before their pay is reviewed as it could not afford the cost of the increment which would cost an additional Ksh 70 billion.