This archive report was first published on 9 August 2019.
On August 9, 2019, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) announced plans to flex its muscles harder, revoking the promotions of Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) members earned since July 1, 2017. The TSC aims to recover the "erroneous payments" made to teachers under the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) since then.
The move follows the TSC's loss of its case at the Employment and Labour Relations Court on July 12, 2019. Unless the judgement is overturned, the affected teachers will also miss out on another huge pay rise slated for July next year.
Some 103,624 senior teachers and school administrators affiliated to Knut received salaries without the eagerly anticipated third phase payment of the Sh54 billion CBA signed in 2016. The final payment is expected at the end of July 2021. Teachers in lower cadres, who are the majority, were not affected as they were not beneficiaries of the third phase payments.
"In order to comply with this order, without disadvantaging teachers who are not Knut members, TSC has been forced to run two parallel payrolls," a statement signed by Ms Rita Wahome, on behalf of the chief executive Nancy Macharia, reads.
The TSC has declined to collect and remit more than Sh135 million on behalf of the Knut national office for July, a duty it has always fulfilled even in its bitterest feuds with the union since it was established in 1957.
