The Commission says the money for the teachers is lying idle and the teachers should write through the Commission secretary to claim it.
The teachers according to the Commission are those who missed the last two phases of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) 2017 to 2021.
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The CBA, which was signed between Knut and TSC following the release of Job Evaluation Report in the Teaching Service by Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) in 2016, intended to facilitate structured and constructive dialogue between the employer and the union.
Knut members have not been enjoying twice (since 2019) the benefits of the CBA because of the tiff between the TSC and Knut which was under Wilson Sossion.
School administrators had there payment benefits spread into four phases while for classroom teachers the benefits were spread into two phases.
Despite former Knut secretary general Wilson Sossion getting a court order setting aside Career Progression Guidelines (CPG), TSC failed to pay part of the Sh54 billion CBA to Knut members.
TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia explained that in order to comply with the court order, without disadvantaging teachers who are not Knut members, it had to run two parallel payrolls.
One payroll for Knut members under Schemes of Service and the other for non-members of Knut under Career Progression Guidelines (CPG),” Macharia said.
During Sossion tenure as secretary general, Knut members were locked out of administrative and automatic promotions due to their Schemes of Service (SoS).
TSC had said it will advertise Teacher Professional Cources (TPC) courses for Knut members to undertake before they get considered for any promotion.
The efforts by Wilson Sossion to fight for the teachers to get paid and promotions ended in futility.
Sossion argued that TSC suspended the agreement it signed, replacing it with CPG tools which were not negotiated by TSC and Knut as per the requirement of the Statutory Instruments Act (2013) and approved by Parliament.
The commission suspended the CBA effective July 1, 2019, and consequently denied Knut members benefits.
Around 100,000 Knut members missed the final phases of the CBA. However all Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) members benefited from the deal.
However Knut under current leadership of secretary general Collins Oyuu struck a deal with TSC that saw the teachers enjoy a salary increment in September last year.
TSC backdated the payment for the teachers to enjoy the two increments which they missed. Teachers were paid all there benefits arrears. Some however missed and TSC has a message on how they can get the payment.
Full implementation of 2017-2021 CBA saw teachers who were previously on job group B5 earning a basic salary of Sh21,345, moved to C1 with a salary increment of about Sh8,000.
Allowances for these teachers were also increased tremendously. They enjoyed a new house allowance of Sh4,200, commuter of Sh4,000 and hardship allowance of Sh8,200.
A head teacher who was earning Sh45,000 in June 2019 now earns Sh62,272.
Teachers who missed the CBA benefits due to their stay in Knut due to the feud between TSC and Knut that time are required to write a letter to the Commission.
The letter must be signed by the school headteachers and addressed to the Commission secretary. Enquiries can also be made through TSC email info@tsc.go.ke
A report by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) slammed the 2016 job evaluation saying was skewed, favouring school heads while leaving classroom teachers with nothing.
The report said the present job descriptions of the classrooms teachers, based on the 2016/2017 evaluation, grossly undervalued their worth, resulting in poor pay.
It discloses that the present Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), implemented based on the last job evaluation, heavily favoured head teachers as it did not aptly capture classroom teachers’ job descriptions.
There were significant disparities in the compensation and career progression between the institutional administrators and classroom teachers in the teaching profession as the job evaluation results for 2016/2017 did not adequately cater for the remuneration of classroom teachers. This might be attributed to poor development of job descriptions in 2016,” reads the report.
However, the TSC said it reflected the relative worth of the job and level of responsibility, decision-making and impact.
In July last year TSC citing bad economic times signed non-monetary CBA 2021 -2025 with teachers unions Knut, Kuppet and Kusnet.
TSC and teachers unions have last month started salary talks with Knut pushing for a basic salary increment of between 15 to 20 per cent.
The union is said to be concerned with classroom teachers outcry who want the huge salary gap between them and school administrators be addressed.
Knut has expressed confidence that the non-monetary CBA) it signed with TSC in July last year will be reviewed soon.
Knut Secretary-General Collins Oyuu, revealed that the union had held five meetings with TSC to address the issue, with the sixth one planned to take place in the coming days.
Though Mr Oyuu declined to discuss the details of the proposal, multiple sources have indicated that the union was ready to take any counter proposal from the commission, so as to pacify its members who felt cheated by the “empty’ CBA signed last year.
I want to announce to teachers that the negotiations that were stopped on the salary increment under the watch of the former union leadership have now been re-opened,” said Mr Oyuu.
He added: “I am engaging TSC properly to have the CBA that was signed reviewed, especially in relation to the salary component … I can assure you that we shall succeed,” said Mr Oyuu.
Below are the new salaries and allowances for teachers based on the latest CBA signed in July last year.
BASIC SALARY
Grade Basic Pay
Minimum Basic Pay
Maximum
B5 21,756 27,195
C1 27,195 33,994
C2 34,955 43,694
C3 43,154 53,943
C4 52,308 65,385
C5 62,272 77,840
D1 77,840 93,408
D2 91,041 109,249
D3 104,644 125,573
D4 118,242 141,891
D5 131,380 157,656
COMMUTER ALLOWANCE
Grade TSC Scale Commuter Allowance p.m
B5 5 4,000
C1 6 4,000
C2 7 5,000
C3 8 6,000
C4 9 8,000
C5 10 8,000
D1 11 12,000
D2 12 12,000
D3 13 14,000
D4 14 14,000
D5 15 16,000
DISABILITY GUIDE ALLOWANCE
Grade TSC Scale Disability Guide Allowance p.m
B5 5 20,000
C1 6 20,000
C2 7 20,000
C3 8 20,000
C4 9 20,000
C5 10 20,000
D1 11 20,000
D2 12 20,000
D3 13 20,000
D4 14 20,000
D5 15 20,000
LEAVE ALLOWANCE
Grade TSC Scale Annual Leave Allowance p.m
B5 5 4,000
C1 6 4,000
C2 7 6,000
C3 8 6,000
C4 9 6,000
cs 10 6,000
D1 11 10,000
D2 12 10,000
D3 13 10,000
D4 14 10,000
D5 15 10,000
HOUSE ALLOWANCE
Grade Hse1 Nairobi Hse2 -Major Municipalities- Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Nyeri, Eldoret, Thika, Kisii and Kitale Hse3 -Other former Minor Municipalities Hse4 – alI other areas
BS 6,750 4,500 3,850 3,200
C1 10,000 7,500 5,800 4,200
C2 16,500 12,800 9,600 7,500
C3 28,000 22,000 16,500 13,000
C4 28,000 22,000 16,500 13,000
C5 35,000 25,500 18,000 15,400
D1 45,000 28,000 21,000 16,800
D2 45,000 28,000 21,000 16,800
D3 45,000 28,000 21,000 16,800
D4 45,000 28,000 21,000 16,800
D5 50,000 35,000 25,000 20,000
HARDSHIP ALLOWANCE
Grade TSC Scale Hardship Allowance p.m
B5 5 6,600
C1 6 8,200
C2 7 10,900
C3 8 12,300
C4 9 14,650
C5 10 17,100
D1 11 27,300
D2 12 27,300
D3 13 31,500
D4 14 31,500
D5 15 38,100
During the tenure of Mr Wilson Sossion as secretary-general, the union’s membership reduced from 187,000 to 15,000 due to a long-running spat with TSC and the Ministry of Education fuelled by a litany of legal battles in the industrial court.
It also saw the union’s earnings sharply drop from more than Sh147 million per month to Sh12,000 by the time he bowed out of the union leadership.
Mr Collins Oyuu said his style of leadership is diplomacy.
“Some people asked me whether I would fit into his (Sossion’s) shoes when we took over the leadership mantle last year. I kept asking which shoes, because I have my own shoes that fit me well,” said Mr Oyuu.
But Mr Sossion said in December in Kericho that the current perks enjoyed by the teachers were as a result of his fight to have salaries increased and the working environment improved.
I acted as deputy head teacher from June2015 but never benefited from the CBA .I therefore claimed my rightful pay