72,000 Teachers Removed From KNUT Register By TSC

72,000 teachers have been struck off the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) register by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in what would seem like another blow to Knut.

This comes after a Labour Court instructed that the teachers’ employer remit dues to Knut, where Knut has lost 57 million shillings for the month of September after TSC deducted 83 million shillings from 115,000 teachers.

The removal of teachers from Knut’s register potentially deepens the union’s row with the commission and could further the wrangles recently witnessed within the union leadership.

While Knut leadership called for a crisis meeting to deliberate on how to handle the issue since the union has not received its July and August dues, Knut’s Secretary General Wilson Sossion said that the union is in talks with the TSC concerning the matter as they do not want to engage in fights with the teachers’ employer.

“We want to be so calm about this and avoid fights. We shall hold talks with TSC and have them reinstate the full register of Knut,” said Sossion.

Knut regional officials are however worried as it turns out Knut regional operations have stopped due to lack of salaries.

With 83 million shillings deducted from the union’s September dues, Regional officials have become increasingly worried about what will become of the regional offices if nothing is done.

Knut has for a long time enjoyed a membership of about 187,000 teachers and would receive 140 million shillings monthly, 61 percent of which would be sent to all the 110 regional offices while 38 percent would be used to run various activities at the head office.

The TSC, however, said that the 72,000 employees willingly dumped Knut as they may have realized that they would miss on benefits if they were to continue being Knut members.

The 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), adopted by the TSC and signed by both Knut and KUPPET in 2016, was at risk of failing to be implemented for teachers under Knut seeing that the union was involved in a court battle with their employer.

TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia also said that the commission was unable to fully implement the third phase of the CBA which would see teachers have their salaries increased, due to the court ruling.

The row between Knut and TSC had caused 18000 teachers to decamp to KUPPET in August, given that KUPPET did not subscribe to the return of career progression guidelines.

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