Knut issues strike notice over salary raise offer
By Bernard Gitau, January 28, 2021
Bernard Gitau @benagitau
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has issued a seven-day strike notice after they rejected an offer to have tutors salaries increased by between 16 and 32 per cent.
Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion termed the proposal forwarded by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) as irregular.
Sossion said he had received firm instruction from the National Executive Council to demand TSC to put in place necessary measures to commence negotiations within seven days, failure to which they call for a strike.
“I am firmly instructed to inform you that upon the next seven days, Knut shall be left with no option but to organise its members for an industrial action…,” said Sossion.
The Secretary General said decision to forward the proposal to SRC was not born out of consultations or proper negotiations.
In addition, he claimed the proposal is not supported by any data from the Central Planning and Monitoring Unit (CPMU) in the Ministry of Labour and is neither born out of a credible job evaluation.
Legal measures
According to him, Knut, in a letter dated November 13, 2020 gave TSC three weeks to put all the legal and procedural measures in place to commence the negotiations of the next Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
“You instead went mute and activated your Legal Department to revoke the existing Knut/TSC Recognition Agreement.
This in effect is to declare that you are not intending to negotiate the next CBA with Knut, which in itself is an act of provocation and bad faith,” added Sossion.
Union boss maintains that, a proper job evaluation particularly of classroom teachers, must be done so that they can be adequately compensated in the next CBA.
He said at the moment, they could have concluded and signed the next CBA to allow the ongoing government budget making process to accommodate the new salary proposals.
The threat for industrial action comes in the midst of a bitter row between KNUT and TSC.
The ongoing supremacy battle has continued to hinder the operations of the union, thus causing it to shut down 110 offices across the country.