A seven member committee appointed by the Labour Cabinet Secretary to mediate the deadlock on teachers strike wants the ministry to establish a Joint Industrial Council to help in future disputes between KNUT.
CS Ukur Yattani appointed Charles Maranga as the chairperson of the committee and the members included Benson Okwaro, Wafula Musamia, Linus Kariuki, Moses Ombokh, Robert Muthanga and Geoffrey Omondi.
In a report filed in court, the team say that there is need for establishment of a standing Joint Industrial Council (JIC) under chairmanship of a neutral person who is well versed with employment and labour relations practice.
“JIC will be created by both TSC and KNUT and it will have an independent Chairperson to be created by both parties.” the report said.
Prior to the committee being formed, KNUT had raised several issues that gave rise to the strike notice which included Teachers Promotions, transfer of teachers, performance contracting and appraisal system and Teachers Professional Development Modules.
On the issue of promotions, the team noted that the TSC Circular dated May 2 last year was an outcome of the Salary Remuneration Commission’s Job Evaluation report that enabled TSC secure Sh 54 Billion to upgrade the teachers.
“In implementing the report and promoting teachers,TSC did not consult KNUT leading to the omission in promotion of an alleged 11,950 teachers with higher academic qualifications.” Reads the report
Read:
In line with the above findings, the committee has recommended that they constitution a Joint Committee within the next 30 days to consult and entrench the criteria for promotion in line with their CBA, CORT and TSC Act 2012 to guide the exercise moving forward.
The seven member team also says that future promotions should be based on the regulations CBA and TSC Act 2012 and any other document agreed upon by the KNUT and TSC”
In Delocalization of teachers, the committee noted that KNUT had initially complained of transfer of 3,094 teachers but they have established that only 278 teachers have so far appealed against the transfers through the Union.
“In addition there are 85 trade union leaders who are currently affected by the transfer” the report reads.
They were of the opinion that TSC as the employer has the mandate to transfer teachers and also promote them over and above the CBA or Code of Regulation for Teachers.
They said that the transfer of union officials should be restricted within their locality until the end of their current term as officials.
“Whereas TSC has the mandate to transfer its teachers it is good industrial relations practice they consult where the transfer involves elected trade unions officials” they added.
Further adding that this arrangement on transfers should be in-cooperated into their CBA.
They also established that under the current status the union officials who are also institutional administrators are faced with conflict of interest in the execution of their duties.
The committee also recommended that in the future there should be a standing conciliation committee for resolution of disputes in public sector.
The also noted that the some of the complaints brought out during the talks were genuine and require urgent attention and remedial action.
Read:
On the issue of Teachers Professional Development Modules they found out that both TSC and KNUT were in agreement that they require the said modules.
TSC intends to levy a fee of Sh 500 every month to fund the implementation of the modules to which KNUT is opposed to.
The Modules enable a teacher to acquire a certificate in the teaching profession for compliance and it is argued that the Regulatory function is not part of the Code of Regulations for teachers of the CBA.
According to their regulations, every registered teacher is required to undertake CPG and professional development programs as per regulations made under the TSC Act.
The committee noted that “both TSC and KNUT should encourage and support certification of teachers and also TSC should share with KNUT the said modules with a view of educating them”
It also emerged that both parties did not have an objection to the introduction of performance management system and they were encouraged to cooperate and implement it.
The parties will all appear before he industrial team to submit the report on February 18.