Teachers to proceed with nationwide strike after TSC talks with unions collapse

Teachers across the country will down their tools on Monday, August 26, 2024, after talks between them and their employer, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), failed.

TSC, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) held talks on Wednesday in a bid to avert the looming strike.

However, the talks ended in disarray after the unions rejected their employer’s offer to only implement Phase II of the 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Among the issues the unions demanded to be addressed included the full implementation of the second phase of the 2021-2025 CBA, which promised a salary increment of seven to nine per cent, but which the government has failed to honour.

The CBA between the unions and TSC was signed in June 2021 and amended by an addendum in August 2023. KNUT accused TSC of breaching the agreement by failing to implement the second phase of the addendum, effective from July 1, 2024, for all teachers, including basic salaries and allowances.

The unions also demanded that the Commission immediately confirm the promotion of 130,000 teachers who have stagnated in their current job grades during the current financial year.

According to the union, the teachers were already shortlisted and interviewed for new grades in 2023 but failed to get their appointments due to the lack of a budget for their promotions.

The teachers also want their medical coverage reinstated. The unions argue that despite the government's allocation of Sh1.5 billion towards the teachers' medical scheme in the current financial year as per contract, the scheme has collapsed.

“Our members' insurance cards are honoured only in public hospitals, which are few and often have no drugs or medical personnel. The TSC must live to its commitments under the scheme contract and restore healthcare services to our members,” the Unions said in their seven-day strike notice dated August 19, 2024.

Additionally, they have called for the remittance of loans and NSSF, noting that since the commencement of the Finance Act 2023, TSC has been deducting NSSF on teachers' salaries without remitting the same to the Fund.

Other demands include confirmation of all current intern teachers into permanent and pensionable employment effective July 1, 2024, and the remittance of their full salaries for the months which are already in arrears.

They also want 20,000 new teachers to be recruited and appointed on permanent and pensionable terms to address the huge deficit in Junior Secondary Schools.

Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori had cautioned parents from taking their children to school because teachers would be on strike.

“This is something which the teachers of the country and this organ have mandated me to tell the whole country that there is no teacher in school and therefore any parent sending the children to school on August 26, 2024, will be doing so at their peril because there will be no teachers in school,” he said.

On August 7, Kuppet and Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) cited the steady deterioration of conditions of work over the commission's alleged rescinding of past agreements.

On the other hand, TSC has urged teachers to report back to schools on August 26, noting that it is committed in providing a conducive working environment for all the teachers in its employment.

“We are therefore beseeching all our teachers to report to schools on Monday for the start of the Third Term now that the Government has released funds for the implementation of the second phase of the 2021-2025 СВА,” the Commission said.