Labour CS to meet union leaders in bid to end strike
What you need to know:
Teachers have kept away from schools for the third day, with union officials vowing to carry on with the strike until their salary demands are met.
Kenya National Union Teachers (Knut) chairman Mudzo Nzili and treasurer Albanus Mutisya insisted on an offer of between 50 and 60 per cent for the talks to proceed. Knut had initially demanded a 300 per cent increase in basic pay.
Kazungu Kambi said the offer that teachers were demanding amounted to Sh 9.3 billion and declared that “no more cash will be added on this”.
Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi will Wednesday meet with officials of teachers unions and the Teachers Service Commission in a bid to end the countrywide strike.
Talks between the government officials from the Education and Labour ministries and teachers stalled on Tuesday, delaying the reopening of public primary and secondary schools countrywide.
FAILED TO YIELD FRUIT
The talks that lasted the whole day failed to yield fruit after the two ministries, led by their Cabinet secretaries, failed to table an offer to increase basic salaries for teachers.
Teachers have kept away from schools for the third day, with union officials vowing to carry on with the strike until their salary demands are met.
Kenya National Union Teachers (Knut) chairman Mudzo Nzili and treasurer Albanus Mutisya insisted on an offer of between 50 and 60 per cent for the talks to proceed.
Knut had initially demanded a 300 per cent increase in basic pay.
Mr Kambi said the offer that teachers were demanding amounted to Sh 9.3 billion and declared that “no more cash will be added on this”.
'OTHER SECTORS ENTITLED'
“The government offer will push the annual teachers' wage bill to Sh170 billion, accounting for 10 per cent of the budget. Let us face facts. Other sectors are entitled to their share of the national budget,” he said.
He maintained that the basic salary will only be reviewed once a job evaluation for all public sector employees has been completed.
He has called upon those teachers who have not resumed classes to do so as directed by the Education Ministry and the TSC, saying that there will be disciplinary action against those who do not return to work because the strike is not protected under the Labour Relations Act.
