Teachers suffer blow in Sh599m row with TSC

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) bid to be paid Sh599 million by Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has been rejected by a judge stating that the union should wait for the main hearing of the case.

Justice Maureen Onyango rejected the application by Knut stating that it should give TSC time to respond to the application, and convince the court how it arrived at the amount.

“With respect to payment of the sum of KES 599,082,312/= I decline to grant the same at this stage as it is a liquidated claim that needs to be considered following the substantive hearing of the matter,” the Judge said.

Knut moved to court last year accusing TSC of failing to remit fees deducted from its members. Besides the amount, Knut also wanted TSC chief executive officer Nancy Macharia to be held in contempt of court for failing to remit the deducted fees for the month of August and December last year.

The Judge, however, rejected the application stating that the teachers’ employer had explained that the August fees could not be remitted, because by the time the court order was served to the Commission, the payroll for teachers had been processed and salaries paid, without factoring in the union fees.

The court also heard that the December 2019 fees were not forwarded to the union due to a technical hitch. But deductions for subsequent months had been remitted as directed by the court, TSC explained.

“The Respondent and alleged Contemnor have explained that by the time the orders were served, the teacher’s payroll had been processed and thus they were not able to remit the dues,” the Judge said.

“ I am satisfied by the explanation given by the Respondent and the continued good will in the remittance of union dues in the following months save for the month of December, 2019 which has been attributed to technical hitches.”

A dispute over the membership of Knut is still pending before the court with the teachers’ union accusing the employer of remitting dues to other unions but leaving it out.