The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has directed on how teachers who are members of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) can get paid.
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.
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 feel TSC should consider and promote those teachers who have diploma,degree masters and PhD certificates because they used their money and it is the government that allowed them to further their studies because they had stagnated in one job group and they are still there
TSC should encourage progression of teachers academic by honouring them through promotion or salary increment.
TSC should encourage progression of teachers academic by honouring them through
promotion or salary increment.
What is the new scale for a teacher who was in scale C1 and missed on the CBA because she was in KNUT by the Tsc ran two payrolls?
Let tsc say something about the teachers who went for further studies, received acknowledgement letters but we’re not promoted
Tsc left some form six while they were promoting others. They left very few. They should consider to promote them as others. They deserve to be treated equally. I’m among the few left ones
This is yet another ploy by TSC to derail the promotion exercise. These info TSC is asking teachers to submit thr’ H/TS is within their database. If they were able to run 2 parallel payrolls, why ain’t they archive the rolls & make necessary corrections? This corrective measures seems punitive, inquisitive, interrogative & time wasting.
What about those who were interdicted and they have been reinstated.does it mean their job group will never change