We don’t owe KNUT, Kuppet any money – TSC

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has stated that it has not made any deductions from teachers’ salary and thus has nothing to remit to teachers unions.

In a statement sent to newsrooms on Saturday, TSC said it chose not to make the deductions for Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) for the months of October, November and December, pending the findings of an ongoing validation exercise into the unions’ operations.

TSC dispelled reports appearing on local dailies that the move was aimed at crippling the unions and forcing a shutdown, saying the measure was necessitated by the need to streamline activities of both KNUT and Kuppet and address complaints from teachers.

“The unions’ officials are aware that the commission did not deduct the dues as it has been undertaking an authentication exercise on union membership to resolve longstanding issues arising from affiliation to unions. The issue of releasing or remitting union dues does not, therefore, arise.”

The commission stated that it had received numerous complaints from teachers over irregular deductions on their pay slips saying the move was necessitated by the need to streamline payroll deductions in respect to union memberships.

“The teachers had complained of fraudulent recruitment to either KNUT or the Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET) through forgery of their personnel details, including signatures. As a result, they were being deducted union dues without their knowledge and consent,” stated TSC.

“Further, some teachers had changed Unions without first resigning from the initial union as required by the law.”

The commission pointed at a court case between the commissions and TSC regarding recruitment of members to the unions as reason enough to carry out the exercise.

“Indeed, these complaints led to court cases against TSC: Nairobi E&LRC no. 97 OF 2012 KUPPET Vs TSC & KNUT in which Kuppet was contesting the recruitment of about 2,000 members to Knut; Nairobi E&LRC no. 14 OF 2014 KUPPET Vs TSC & KNUT where Kuppet alleged illegal reversal of more than 3,800 of their members; and Nairobi E&LRC JR no. 17 OF 2014 KNUT Vs KUPPET , TSC & Another on agency fees.”

“The validation process seeks to ultimately streamline management of the teachers’ payroll, affiliation to unions and avoid unnecessary industrial strife and court cases. It does not seek to recruit members for unions or interfere with teacher’s constitutional right to join (or not join) a union.”

TSC warned the unions against issuing threats and ultimatums instead calling for their support in the validation process to bring to a close the membership issues facing them and the teachers.

KNUT had on Friday said their operations had almost ground to a halt due to lack of funds since TSC had not remitted their dues for the past three months.

The union’s Secretary General Wilson Sossion stated that they do not have money to finance the forthcoming branch and national elections slated for March and June this year.

The union had on Wednesday given TSC a seven-day ultimatum to remit their dues failure to which they will take action against them.

By @benjaminwafula