TSC challenges Supreme Court ruling on teachers’ salaries

Politics and policy

Pupils go to their classrooms at Nyamachaki Primary School in Nyeri town on Monday. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI 

By BRIAN WASUNA and NEVILLE OTUKI

In Summary

• The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) says the Supreme Court erroneously ruled that the teachers’ employer had not filed an appeal, a situation that led to the issuance of the pay increment order.
• The TSC argues that it had filed an appeal more than a week before the Supreme Court made its ruling on August 24.
• The commission now wants the salary increment stopped pending the hearing and determination of its earlier application.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has returned to the Supreme Court seeking the reversal of its decision, which required the government to implement a 50-60 per cent salary increment for the tutors in a last-ditch attempt to stop the current go-slow that has paralysed learning since Monday.

This came as learners in public schools across the country on Tuesday went unattended after teachers heeded their unions’ advice not to resume classes for the third term until their pay is raised.

Treasury secretary Henry Rotich has said the pay rise, amounting to Sh1.4 billion per month and Sh17 billion a year, had not been budgeted for.

In its fresh application, TSC says the Supreme Court erroneously ruled that the teachers’ employer had not filed an appeal, a situation that led to the issuance of the pay increment order.

Instead, the TSC argues that it had filed an appeal more than a week before the Supreme Court made its ruling on August 24.

“The determination that there was neither an appeal nor an intended appeal before the Supreme Court is erroneous as TSC had filed a notice of appeal and petition of appeal dated July 27, 2015,” TSC says in court papers.

“It is imperative for the perception of justice that this court’s ruling delivered on August 24, 2015 be reviewed and set aside.”

The commission now wants the salary increment stopped pending the hearing and determination of its earlier application.

In its earlier application, TSC had gone to the highest court in the land seeking a reversal of the conditional orders that had been granted by the Court of Appeal.

The Appeals Court told the government to increase teachers’ pay by between 50 per cent and 60 per cent starting August until its objection to the Industrial Court’s judgment to award the tutors a pay rise is heard and determined.

But the TSC insists that the conditional order is unconstitutional and wants it stopped.

“The victory that has recently been celebrated by the Kenya National Union of Teachers and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers in song and dance has been advanced on the false basis that this court has ruled that enhanced salaries should be paid to their members,” TSC says.

Learning was paralysed in various city schools including Moi Avenue Primary in the central business district where pupils turned up for school but teachers boycotted duty.

READ: Teachers insist on strike as TSC warns boycott is illegal

On Tuesday, the Trade Unions Congress of Kenya (TUC-Kenya), a workers’ union, asked the government to respect the courts’ ruling and effect the teachers’ pay increment.

TUC-Kenya organising secretary Charles Mukhwaya urged teachers to continue with the strike until their pay is raised.

On Tuesday, Education secretary Jacob Kaimenyi urged parents to take their children to school, saying the government would provide “sufficient security” in schools.

“I want to encourage the unions to give dialogue a chance to talk to their employer, TSC,” Prof Kaimenyi told a press briefing in Nairobi on Tuesday.

But the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) have stayed put that teachers would only head back to classrooms after the pay hike.

The unions said they plan to initiate contempt of court proceedings against their employer should it fail to award them the pay rise according to the court order.

In most parts of the country, parents kept their children at home, fearing for their safety.

The Treasury has said that it has three “unpalatable” options to raise the extra cash for the 288,060 teachers including increasing taxes, borrowing from the domestic market or cutting budgeted expenditure. But Mr Rotich thinks all would have negative effects to the economy.  

Knut’s top decision making organ, the National Executive Council, is expected to hold a meeting today to decide the next course of action, according to secretary-general Wilson Sossion.

Public school-goers have often been disadvantaged by the teachers’ strikes since learning in private schools has not been interrupted.

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