Teachers' union Knut issues 21-day strike notice over pay

Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion (right) at a past press conference. Knut has issued a 21-day strike notice over government's failure to honour their return to work formula which they signed last year, including an increase in allowances. FILE PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE |   NATION MEDIA GROUP

By MARYANNE GICOBI

In Summary

• Knut has a list of 37 demands listed in their CBA that they want the SRC to meet and discuss, key among them being revision of housing, commuter and responsibility allowances.
• Mr Sossion has asked the TSC to convene a meeting with the government, failure to which the teachers’ union will go on strike at the expiry of the 21 days.

Knut has issued a 21-day strike notice over the government's failure to honour a return-to-work formula they signed last year, including an increase in allowances.

In a news conference on Wednesday, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) said that a pre-condition for returning to work last year was that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) would sign a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

“After the strike, one of the (provisions of the) return-to-work formula was a CBA between the teachers’ employer, TSC, and SRC which was to be written within 90 days after resuming duty. To date, nothing has been done,” Mr Wilson Sossion, the Knut secretary-general, told journalists at the union's headquarters in Nairobi.

List of demands

Knut has a list of 37 demands listed in their CBA that they want the SRC to meet and discuss, key among them being the revision of housing, commuter and responsibility allowances.

Mr Sossion said some of the teachers' allowances, such as housing allowance, was last reviewed in 1997, with half of the teachers getting a monthly allowance of Sh3,000.

“Teachers are living in deplorable conditions. The government has met most of the workers in other sectors and signed a CBA, they have even been cajoled by the political class to pay them moneys outside the laws. Teachers are not lesser beings, we cannot be disadvantaged because of our numbers,” said Mr Sossion.

Mr Sossion has asked the TSC to convene a meeting with the government, and if it fails to do so the teachers’ union will go on strike at the expiry of the 21 days.