KNUT officials meet over teachers’ pay

Kenya National Union of Teachers officials are currently holding a National Steering Committee meeting to chart the way forward on the State House deal over a new collective bargaining agreement for teachers.

According to KNUT Chairman Mudzo Nzili, this will be the first of three meetings that will be held this week where a decision will be made on whether to hold fresh pay talks with the Teachers Service Commission as agreed in a meeting chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta earlier this month.

Speaking to Royal Media Services’ Hot 96 FM, Nzili said that the national executive council meeting would also meet on Thursday before the union finally convenes the Advisory Council on Friday to approve or reject the deal.

The Union leaders, however, differed publicly on the matter, with Secretary General Wilson Sossion insisting that teachers will not drop their demands for a 50-60 per cent pay rise that was awarded by the labour court.

Speaking at Chebonei Girls last week, KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion said that if the government wants them to withdraw all cases still pending in court, then it must be ready to implement the pay rise that was awarded to them by the labour court.

Sossion noted that teachers are still bitter with the Court of Appeal ruling that overturned the labour court ruling and declared the pay rise unconstitutional.

The secretary general also indicated that the union had no intention of starting another circus of confusion, which he termed as monkey business, and that teachers will not go back to empty negotiation tables every now and then.

Sossion termed the meeting held in State House between President Kenyatta, TSC and KNUT National Chairman Mudzo Nzili as null and void since he, as the teachers’ spokesperson and the holder of KNUT’s seal, was not party to it.

This comes two days after President Kenyatta directed TSC to pay teachers their September salaries in addition to kick starting the all important negotiation within a month in order to come up with a collective bargaining agreement to be implemented within four years.

The rare but progressive meeting was convened by President Kenyatta at State House, Nairobi as KNUT and TSC officials sought to break the protracted legal and street battles between the government and teachers over pay.

President Kenyatta also ordered for negotiations between the warring parties whose results he said must be announced in a month after they withdraw all pending court cases.

President Kenyatta further urged TSC to consider payment of teachers who worked in the month of September while their colleagues were out on strike and asked that they be compensated appropriately.

The Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) has since applauded President Kenyatta’s initiative to restore sanity in the education sector.

COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli said the president’s decision to bring an understanding between the TSC and the teachers’ unions was a big step towards ending the perennial teachers’ strikes.