The chairman of Kenya’s National Union of Teachers (KNUT), Wilson Sossion, has warned of “dire consequences” if teachers’ salaries and allowances for July are not fully paid by close of business on July 31.
“It’s wrong for the government to violate an agreement and raid the payrolls of teachers to raise revenue to service [government] needs,” said Sossion, adding: “Teachers’ salaries, together with the new commuter allowances which were agreed to end the strike, must be in their bank accounts by 31st July, failure of which the teachers of this country will take drastic measures against the government.”
The teacher’s group accepted the government’s offer for a commuter allowance of between US$33 for the lowest earning teacher and US$126 for the highest earning teacher to be paid in two phases over the next 12 months.
Sossion accused the government of provocation following an announcement that teachers will not get their July pay because of their strike. KNUT executives suspended a three-week teacher’s strike following negotiations with the administration.
Sossion says KNUT has notified the Teachers Service Commission as well as various government institutions to pressure the administration to keep its promises.
“We still have a lot of energy to stage another strike to prevent the infringement of our rights by the government,” said Sossion.
The Teachers’ Service Commission says it did not commit to pay striking teachers July’s salaries in the return-to-work formula it signed with KNUT.
The commission said it was not victimising teachers, citing the Employments Act and labour laws as its justification to withhold pay.
Sossion’s comments came after some government officials expressed concern about the country’s high wage bill. They proposed ways to cut down the wage bill and the broadening of the tax base to raise more revenue for the government. But Sossion, suggesting the teachers are not to blame for the high wage bill, said:
“That is not an excuse to punish workers. We are not asking for additional money. [They should] pay the salaries at the level that they have been paying. And so the argument of the huge wage bill has no correlation whatsoever with the running salaries of teachers.
“So we have given our warning in black and white and we expect the government to comply. If it doesn’t we will further invoke the powers granted to us as a union by the Labour Relations Act.”
Supporters of the ruling party have accused the teachers group of creating a crisis in education through blackmail. They said the recent teachers’ strike was politically motivated. Sossion disagrees, saying:
“We do not engage in politics as a labour union and we operate within the [confines] of the law and therefore we are quoting the law. We are not playing politics. It is government, which is playing politics.”
