Three teachers’ unions on Tuesday signed a non-monetary 2022-2025 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) after day-long negotiations.
The three are the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) and Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers (Kusnet).
TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia noted that they discussed several key issues affecting teachers.
In the CBA, the TSC has made changes including extending the 90-day maternity leave to 120 days, and the paternity leave from 14 to 21 days. It has also agreed to a 45-day adoption leave for teachers.
Regarding the basic pay rise issue, which has been a bone of contention between the TSC and the unions, they said a review is expected in a year.
Knut Secretary-General Collins Oyuu said that although the highly awaited monetary gains were not factored into the agreement, “I assure teachers that all is not lost”.
“We still have room to fight for the teachers basic salary increase,” he said. “We shall have time to elaborate all this to members. We shall not sit back as partners.”
Kusnet Secretary-General James Torome noted that the journey to the agreement began a year ago.
“Within one year, we would want to be called to review the document we have signed today,” he said.
Kuppet Secretary-General Akelo Misori: “We have come [a long way] in terms of allaying difficulties and challenges. Although the commission did not provide any monetary aspect in the CBA, we are asking to be recalled to review the document.”
He thanked TSC for the extended leave days and said the talks focused on all the gains teachers have made over the years.
“Once the TSC gets a go-ahead, we expect a review of the basic pay rise of between 30 to 70 percent as we had proposed. We expect another meeting within one year.”
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