TSC proposes 16% increment in teachers basic salary

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has proposed a minimum 16% increment in basic salary for teachers in a proposed new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

The new CBA already deposited at the Salaries and Remuneration Commission is to take effect from July 2021.

Teachers in Grades C4 to D5 will benefit from a 16% increment in their basic salaries in the proposed new Collective bargaining agreement by their Employer.

Those in Grade B5 to Grade C3 will see a 32% pay rise in their salaries should the new CBA be implemented. The 2021-2025 CBA also recommending an increment of up to 20 per cent in house allowances, commuter and leave allowances.

This essentially implying that Senior and Chief principals are to earn at least Ksh.131, 380 and a maximum of Ksh.157, 656. Deputy principals ranked between job Group D1 to D3 will earn between Ksh.77,840 and Ksh.125, 573.

The commission has already forwarded the CBA to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission in what TSC argues is a thorough analysis representative of the views of the two teachers unions, KNUT and KUPPET.

The two unions had late last year made submissions for the new CBA where KNUT wanted the basic pay to be raised by between 120% and 200 percent. Kuppet had also proposed a basic salary increment of between 30 percent and 70 percent.

The Kenya National Union Of Teachers has already contested the decision by the Commission.

In a letter to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion is accusing TSC of forwarding a summary of the proposals the union made.

“Sneaking proposals to SRC in such a manner shall only serve to provoke the teaching service….We write to bring to your attention the anomalies and ask that you Require Teachers Service Commission to first of all comply with the law prior to forwarding the said proposals,” says  Sossion.

But the Salaries and Renumeration Commission has yet again rattled KNUT in it’s response.

SRC Secretary Anne Gitau wrote to Sossion saying, “The SRC has taken note of the issues raised and observed that they are administrative in nature and should therefore be addressed by TSC and KNUT.”

Consequently SRC guides that KNUT engages TSC as the employer and amicably address the matter.

A move that literally forces KNUT back to the drawing board coming days after National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi ruled that matters with regard to TSC and KNUT should not be discussed by the Departmental Committee on Education in Parliament until the cases in court have been solved.