Teachers to know fate of pay rise in November

The Court of Appeal will on November 6^th rule on whether the 50 – 60% pay rise awarded to the teachers by the Employment and Labour Relations Court in June this year is legal.

The five-judge bench said it will deliver a ruling on the matter after the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) contested the award by the Labour Court.

During submissions, the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) lawyer Judith Guserwa argued that the Salaries and Remunerations Commission (SRC) advice was not binding to independent commissions after TSC and SRC argued that the salaries commission should have been consulted before the pay rise was awarded.

However, SRC lawyer Pheroze Nowrojee argued that the body is the only commission legally allowed to conduct public service job evaluation, saying Justice Nduma Nderi of the Labour Court erred in his pay ruling as he ignored SRC’s advice on the wage bill.

Early Saturday, teachers called off the five-week long strike that paralysed learning in all public schools across the country.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) called off the strike saying that the decision was in line with the Employment and Labour Relations Court ruling suspending the strike for 90 days.

KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion said that teachers would resume duties Monday, October 5th, 2015.

Sossion said that the ruling by Justice Nelson Obuodha suspending the strike and failure by Justice Nduma Nderi to issue orders not to suspend the strike were unfair.

The two judges, both of the Employment and Labour Relations Court, said that the strike remained suspended even as an appeal challenging the pay rise is ongoing.

The union further said that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has failed to comply with an earlier court order warning it against withholding teachers’ pay for the month of September.

The teachers’ strike had been ongoing for five weeks, with various organizations calling on the government to give the teachers their pay increment.

Teacher’s downed their tools at the beginning of September over the pay dispute paralyzing learning activities in all public schools across the country.