Sossion faults TSC move on teachers' pay rise

The supremacy battle between teachers and their employer yesterday intensified as Knut demanded immediate salary increments that had been stopped by TSC.

Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion said stopping the pay increment for 103,624 teachers based on misinformation and lies amounted to discrimination and termed the action as malicious.

The teachers were set to receive phase three of the Sh54 billion 2017- 2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

FALSE INFORMATION

Mr Sossion said the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) must correct the false information they have issued terming it as propaganda and intimidation.

"All these wars the TSC is creating are meant to kill and dismantle Knut, which will never happen,” said the union official.

Mr Sossion said, introducing two parallel payrolls for teachers based on the union they belong to is discrimination of employees.

"Matters of teachers are governed by law, there is no way an employer will pay teachers using pay rolls," he said.

He said all the money for teachers’ promotions had been approved by Parliament and should be released to teachers.

On Friday, TSC stopped the pay rise of 103,624 teachers who are Knut members.

SCAM

Mr Sossion said tampering with teachers’ pay and recovering money paid to Knut members in the first and second phases of the CBA amounts to a scam.

TSC’s head of corporate communications, Mr Kihumba Kamotho, said the payroll for Knut members had not factored in phase three of the 2017- 2021 CBA because the court ordered that their terms be based on the schemes of service and not career progression guidelines.

Mr Kamotho said the court’s judgment had necessitated preparation of two parallel payrolls in order to comply with the ruling without disadvantaging teachers who are not Knut members.

Knut yesterday allayed the teachers’ fears, and defended the employment and labour relations court judgment of July 12 saying it did not affect the implementation of the CBA and their salary increment.

“We want the teachers to read in between the lines and determine who between the employer and the union is telling the truth,” said Mr Sossion.

EXPERIENCE

The court judgment nullified the career progression guidelines and ordered that TSC reverts back to the three schemes of service in promoting teachers.

The union yesterday said if the schemes of service are fully implemented as directed by the court without discrimination, the over 103,600 teachers who include head teachers, deputy headteachers and senior teachers will greatly benefit.

Mr Sossion said, this is because of their seniority, experience, acquisition of high academic and professional papers, merit and their ability.

He said the CBA was signed long before the career progression guidelines were implemented arguing that neither the TSC nor the teachers’ unions can annul it. “Therefore, it is illegal and totally out of tune for the TSC to claim that the commission discontinued schemes of service and adapted the CDGs (career progression guidelines),” he said.

Mr Sossion added “whom did they consult as per the CBA?”

Knut said they were ready to meet TSC as directed by the court to discuss the implementation of the court judgment.

PROMOTED

The Knut secretary-general said there was no way the commission could substitute the schemes of service for career progression guidelines.

He said the schemes are anchored in the Code of Regulations for teachers.

According to Knut, the career progression guidelines are illegal as they were never presented before Parliament.

Knut has also accused the TSC of misinforming teachers and the public that the over 300,000 teachers in the public Service were promoted with effect from July, 2017.

Mr Sossion said none of the teachers received a letter conforming their promotion, but only salaries were increased.