Primary teachers to be paid for 10 days

  

Teachers Service Commission Chief Executive Officer Gabriel Lengoiboni (second right), exchanges a pay agreement with the Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori (second left) during the signing ceremony at TSC offices in Nairobi, July 11th, 2013. Mr Lengoiboni Thursday said Section 80 of the Labour Relations Act states: “An employee who takes part in a strike is not entitled to any payment or any other benefit during the strike period.”  

In Summary

• The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has threatened to call another strike next week if the teachers are not paid their July salary in full.

All primary school teachers will only be paid a 10-day salary for July, their employer said Thursday.

Those who did not participate in the strike will be reimbursed a salary of 21 days once an audit to ascertain teachers who absconded duty is compiled.

The Teachers Service Commission chief executive officer, Mr Gabriel Lengoiboni, said Section 80 of the Labour Relations Act states: “An employee who takes part in a strike is not entitled to any payment or any other benefit during the strike period.”

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has threatened to call another strike next week if the teachers are not paid their July salary in full.

Teachers in secondary schools will get their full pay as their union called off the strike as directed by the Industrial Court.

At the same time, Knut, which represents the teachers, will not receive Sh90 million in union dues.

Other institutions that are set to suffer include the Higher Education Loans Board, banks, credit institutions that lend teachers money and insurance companies.

In June, when the strike started, the teachers commission sent out Sh6.5 billion to these institutions, including university loan recovery (Sh53 million), loans and credit extended to teachers (Sh1.7 billion) and the National Health Insurance Fund (Sh87 million).

The amount checked off to the Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies for loan recovery was Sh1.5 billion and contributions Sh487 million .

Knut chairman Wilson Sossion said they would call a strike next week and that they were not worried by the failure to remit union dues.

He accused the government of being unfair to teachers since the term dates had been extended to recover the time lost during the 24-day strike that started on June 25.

Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi and his Principal Secretary Richard Kipsang did not respond to calls or text messages to explain the pay cut yet the term was increased by two weeks.

But Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi reiterated that the “government will only pay the teachers for what they have done.”

Catholic bishops criticised the pay cut, with the Justice and Peace Commission chairman, Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth, saying teachers were being punished for rightfully demanding their long-awaited pay.

“Why the double standards? Are some people more equal than others?” he asked during a press conference at Kolping Centre in Lang’ata, Nairobi.