Kenya’s Teachers’ Service Commission ( TSC) has withdrawn an application at the Industrial Court seeking to have Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) officials committed to jail for disobeying a court order.
In the application, the TSC was also seeking to have the court impose a penalty of Sh20 million (£155,000) against the union and in default of payment attach all immovable assets belonging to the union including land and building.
In the new development Deputy Litigation Counsel Mwangi Njoroge, told Industrial Court Judge Linet Ndolo that the TSC had finally managed to serve the union officials in person with the court order directing teachers to resume work. The KNUT had insisted that they could not comply as they had not been served with the court order directing the officials to call off the strike and ordering them to the negotiation table.
However Ndolo told the court that the order directing the teachers to resume classes was still in force, despite the TSC having withdrawn the contempt application. The contempt proceedings can continue if the union officials fail to heed the order, which was served on Monday (July 8).
The commission had also sought to deduct each of the striking teachers Sh10,000 (£77) from their salaries, which the TSC has been withholding for failing to resume duty.
The TSC had asked the court to issue an order prohibiting the Union Chairman Wilson Sossion and the Secretary General Mudzo Nzili from engaging in activities that would continue to fuel the strike. Justice Linet Ndolo, ruling on the dispute, ordered the teachers to resume duty and warned that those who fail to heed the order risked being sacked, as any further industrial action thereafter would not be protected by law.
The judge also ordered the KNUT and Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET) to enter into talks with the TSC and table the report on the deliberations in court in seven days (Monday next week).
On the KUPPET dispute, the judge directed the TSC and the union to negotiate in good faith for avoidance of doubt and added that the talks be restricted to commuter, leave and responsibility allowances.
In the KNUT case, Ndolo noted that the genesis of the dispute between the teachers and the TSC was the amendment of the 1997 legal notice agreement and its replacement with the 2003 agreement.
KNUT officials are expected in court on Wednesday.
