NAIROBI; KENYA: You will not be paid this month’s salary as long as you are outside the classrooms, the Government warned striking teachers yesterday.
Education secretary Jacob Kaimenyi
The teachers’ employer went a step further warning that nobody would be paid, including teachers who remain in class, as long as the strike is on.
Union officials laughed off the threats, however, saying similar bullying tactics had not worked in the past.
The Government threatened to freeze June salaries saying the law barred it from paying teachers who skip class. The Industrial Court is set to rule on the legality of the work boycott on Monday.
To this, one union official responded: “The era of intimidation and threats by the Government is long gone. The Constitution provides for picketing.” Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi was adamant: “You cannot pay anyone who has not worked. As Government, we must respect the law.”
He accused the teachers unions of “double speak” saying the deal on allowances they were fighting to revive had actually been largely implemented.
The head of the Teachers Service Commission, which employs more than 280,000 teachers, also said no salaries would be processed. The move is meant to break the back of the strike, which was timed to begin with the June salary virtually in teachers’ pockets.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers ( Knut) and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) say it would be illegal to deny teachers their June salaries after they had worked for more than 21 days that month.
Work not done
TSC Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni, however, said there shall be ‘no payment for work not done’. Freezing the payroll would affect all 280,000 teachers, whether they are on strike or not. It would also be a dramatic departure from past practice where the earned salary is paid and then a head count taken every day during the strike to determine how many days of pay each striking teacher should lose.Knut and Kuppet have in the past defeated these measures by insisting on not losing any pay or being victimised in any way as part of the return-to-work formula.
Knut chairman Wilson Sossion said teachers had worked for 24 days at the start of the nationwide strike and deserve full pay under labour laws.
“These teachers were not just sitting. They gave full services while on duty so they must be paid full salary. Any attempt to suspend pay is illegal,” he said.
Kuppet national chairman Omboko Milemba and Secretary General Akello Misori expressed disappointment the Government “resorted to intimidation”.
“The era of intimidation and threats by the Government is long gone,” Misori said. “All legal procedures were followed by Kuppet before the National Governing Council authorized the strike.”
Misori called on teachers to remain at home until the Government caves in. Kuppet officials said this was the final push after decades of battling for a deal and backing down was not an option.
Signed deal
Sossion said the strike will proceed and noted that it shall only be called off the moment the Government honours all allowances as per a 1997 agreement. Knutsigned salaries and allowances deal in 1997 that was gazzetted as Legal notice no 534. The Government holds that the union entered into another deal in 2003 that amended the 1997 pact.
However, Knut has continued to disown the 2003 contract saying it was sneaked through without their consent. TSC says the cost implication of fully implementation of the 1997 is Sh47 billion.
Labour Secretary Kazungu Kambi this week infuriated the unions by saying the legal notices are not binding.
He urged Knut to sign a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Kambi also claimed the 1997 deal had been honoured, adding: “The rules have changed because the game has changed”.
Kaimenyi pointed out that teachers have continued to draw commuter, medical, hardship and special school allowances as per the contentious legal notice no. 16 of 2003. He added Knut members are still drawing harmonised house allowances that resulted from the said legal notice.
“The notice gave fixed rates to be implemented in three phases with effect from July 1, 2003. This has been fully implemented,” he said.
He said special school allowances were also paid at a rate of ten per cent of basic pay until 2009 when it was frozen.
“Hardship allowances was paid at 30 per cent of basic pay,” he said, adding: “During negotiations to review salaries that year, it was agreed that all the allowances will remain as they were as at June 30, 2009.”
He said commuter allowance of ten per cent, which was to be paid in ten phases, was fully paid as per the provisions of legal notice of 2003.
He said the transfer allowances, which was to be one month’s basic salary has also been paid as was agreed in 1997.
“We are committed to addressing teachers issues but they must come to the talking table,” Kaimenyi said. The PS noted key concessions as including Sh3.6 billion set aside to recruit 10,000 teachers. “We have also put aside money for promotion of teachers.”
Speaking in reference to the laptop project that was subject of heated debate in Parliament, he said the Government is clear on its priorities and that none shall be sacrificed for any other.
CORD legislators had sought to divert funds meant for laptops to pay teachers.
Knut wanted 50 per cent of teachers basic pay paid towards house allowance in the 1997 deal. However, after 2001, they had their allowances harmonised alongside those of civil servants.
By AUGUSTINE ODUOR and VITALIS KIMUTAI, The Standard
