The Kenya National Union of Teachers’ General Secretary Wilson Sossion has demanded the Government to comply with a court order requiring the Teachers’ Service Commission to increase teachers’ wages by 50 to 60 percent.
Sossion explained in an interview given on 24 August that the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), affiliated to Education International (EI), had instructed its lawyers to write to the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) and the National Treasury to call for the revision of the salaries to follow a ruling of the Labour Relations Court demanding the increase of teachers’ pay by the end of August.
“We have instructed our lawyer to write to the TSC and the Treasury to push for the revision of salaries, and call on the government to comply with the court ruling and proceed to a pay increase for teachers,” he underlined.
Sossion added that the TSC should recall and review the already printed salary slips and integrate the new rates as per the court ruling. The TSC has the capacity to recall the payroll and make the necessary adjustments incorporating the 50 to 60 percent pay rise, he noted.
Schools will not reopen on 1st September if teachers have not have received the new salary raises by then, he warned.
The KNUT General Secretary went on to reject claims that the government has no money to cater for the new salary demands, stressing that he had received assurance from members of the national parliament that they were willing to create a supplementary budget to provide for the new pay scale.
He also countered reports that Kenyan teachers are the highest paid in the region, saying these reports do not factor in strong economies such as South Africa, where teachers reportedly earn 10 times more than their Kenyan counterparts.
Sossion further expressed his support for teachers’ job evaluation, but pointed out that the implementation should be carried out by the TSC, not the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.