Sossion denounces President-Teachers pay deal, terms it raw

The recent pronouncement by President Uhuru Kenyatta that he had successfully brokered a pay deal between the Teachers Service Commission and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) seems to be splitting the teachers’ union with the Secretary General now denouncing the deal.

Wilson Sossion, KNUT Secretary General and whose name is now on every Kenyan’s lips, says the teachers’ union will only sit with their employer, TSC, on Monday on condition that the meeting will be about signing a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to implement the Employment and Labour Relations Court ruling that awarded them a 50 – 60% pay rise.

Speaking at Chebonei girls, 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 which was awarded to them by the Labour Court.

Sossion noted that teachers are still bitter with the Court of Appeal ruling which 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 the 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 and therefore it cannot be binding.

This comes two days after President Kenyatta directed the 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 very 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 all 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.