NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 27 – The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) retracted a teachers’ strike notice on Thursday after Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) said the new pay deal will become effective once a job evaluation exercise is completed.
KNUT had on February 10 issued a two-week strike notice to the government over the new salary structure.
“Note that we had already registered a trade dispute with the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Labour. However, based on the commission’s response citing the process of concluding internal consultations with SRC, we hereby retract our letter to the CS and urge that you give strict and clear timelines of undertaking the salary negotiations,” KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion said.
He said the current salary rates, where teachers are earning a cumulative sum of 54 Billion Shillings, is due for review since it was negotiated during the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement, ending in June 2021.
While issuing the strike notice, Sossion claimed that despite numerous requests from the Union to start negotiations on a new collective agreement for 2021-2025, the Teachers Service Commission has yet to respond.
He argued that the TSC has already consulted with the SRC on new CBA proposals, but has decided to remain silent when interacting with Union members.
The SRC is currently undertaking a job evaluation exercise to inform its third remuneration review cycle in the public service, which will guide that the negotiation parameters for the period 2021-2025 shall be issued once the ongoing job evaluation exercise is concluded.
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