The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) members have something to smile about after TSC agreed to give them a salary increment starting August this year.
According to the new KNUT Secretary-General Collins Oyuu, all KNUT members who missed out on the salary increment benefits will now enjoy the deal like the others before them.
KNUT members have not been enjoying twice the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) 2017-2021 because of the tiff between the Teacher Service Commission (TSC) and KNUT since that has been running since 2019. TSC will backdate the payment for the teachers to enjoy two increments that they missed.
KNUT members will now have a total pay rise of between 8,000 shillings and 15,000 shillings, backdated to cover the last two years (2019 and 2020) they missed out.
At the same time, some of the teachers will also be promoted after they missed out on the opportunities when the rest of their colleagues were moved up during the implementation of the CBA.
Full implementation of 2017-2021 CBA saw teachers who were previously on job group B5 earning a basic salary of 21,345 shillings, moved to C1 with a salary increment of about 8,000 shillings.
Teachers’ allowances were also increased tremendously. They enjoyed a new house allowance of 4,200 shillings, commuter of 4,000 shillings, and hardship allowance of 8,200 shillings.
Headteachers and their deputies who were KNUT members also lost greatly under the last phase of the CBA. A headteacher who was earning Sh45,000 in June 2019 now earns Sh62,272 as their KNUT counterparts’ salaries remained unchanged.
The good news is that teachers who are KNUT members will receive their salaries after the new KNUT SG, Collins Oyuu, made a successful meeting with TSC.
Fresh details have also emerged that Teachers’ employer, TSC, has invited the unions to a second meeting slated for next week on Tuesday to continue the botched Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) talks.
Read More: Reprieve for KNUT as TSC Caves and Calls for CBA Meeting