How will you end the bad blood between teachers’ union and TSC?

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission froze pay rise for all civil servants including teachers for the next two years. Yet you have said that you won’t accept any CBA without monetary aspects from the TSC. Is there any assurance that salary increment is still on? Nathan Muthamia, Tharaka Nithi. 

We must begin by understanding the fact that there are several types of CBAs categorised into two: Monetary CBA which focuses on financial gains of workers and non-monetary that addresses the welfare of the members. In most cases, the aspects go hand-in-hand when negotiating.

The role of trade unions is to research on the value of the currency vis a vis the earnings and place demands to employers based on the findings. What we did as Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) was to place a demand to the employer, who then gave a proposed offer which we are still discussing. Inflation, which is the general increase in commodity prices and the fall of the purchasing power, may not allow us to accept the position SRC took of freezing salary increments.

But then we are still negotiating. Our members should be patient to allow us engage appropriately. We shall have something credible to present to them amid the hard economic times.

From a tough Knut lion to a weeping spectator ion

There is a perception that your election as the secretary-general had approval of some senior people in government. Was that the case? Joseph B. Ashioya, Kitale.

It may be difficult to respond to perceptions, but let me put it this way. When elections were declared, all positions remained vacant; including that of the secretary-general. Knut respects the rule of law and is governed by leaders who are democratically elected in all the 110 branches. Teachers exercised their constitutional rights and privileges to elect new leaders. We must learn to accept that, when the time comes for us to lead, we lead when it is time to leave, we leave. That’s exactly what happened. 

The last CBA was seen to be favouring the administrators, leaving out ordinary classroom teachers’. How are you approaching the current negotiations to ensure all teachers benefit? Olive Jumba, Eldoret. 

The secret of succeeding in any labour negotiations is by having an open, sincere and professionally consultative engagement. This may have lacked when we were negotiating the 2015-2021 CBA. In our introductory sessions with all education stakeholders who included the Ministry of Education, the TSC and the Ministry of Labour, we urged them to turn over a new leaf and accept that we shall be talking with each other, not at each other. So we expect that we shall have a properly scruitnised document before consenting it as our next CBA. We hope this time round all those who felt short-changed shall have a smile on their faces.

What tactics are you going to employ to recruit new members, your numbers having gone down? Olive Jumba,Eldoret 

Teachers never hated their union. This has been demonstrated by over 20,000 members willingly rejoining the union when the TSC opened the online recruitment platform recently. It means that the teachers still have a lot of confidence in their leaders. Every teacher knows the role the union plays in securing their work environment. The newly recruited teachers will effortlessly join Knut because they know that it has tirelessly agitated for employment of more teachers due to the understaffing in schools. If there was some misunderstanding that may have led to bad working relationship between our institution and the employer; then our focus should be to iron out  the differences. 

Knut is currently on its knees after thousands of members left. In your view, who should take the blame for the situation? Beatrice Atsieno, Mbale 

It’s true the union is currently on its knees. Operations in almost all the branches were halted due to lack of finances. This is one of the reasons teachers wanted change of leadership. We have started by addressing our internal challenges making structural administrative adjustments. We already have paid courtesy calls to stakeholders in the sector and we have several programmes lined up for us which we believe will inject a new lease of life in the organisation. 

How will you change Knut for the better? Komen Moris, Eldoret 

I’m going to encourage team work; I will ensure that structures of leadership are involved in decision-making. I shall lead my team to dialoging with other stakeholders as we focus on getting common understanding on issues. 

What brought down Knut was the ‘I’ syndrome, where one always thought he knew it all. Some decisions which impacted on the entire institution were made by an individual without any caution and then we had to take collective responsibility. My dream is to substitute the ‘I’ with the ‘we’, which is the language of trade unions.

Recently, your employer made proposals on teacher training in our universities which have rattled many stakeholders in the sector. What is your take on the issue? Komen Moris, Eldoret. 

We need to understand who of the line stakeholders plays which role between the Ministry of Education and the TSC. We however have already raised our concern over the matter. Teacher training is under the Ministry of Education. With the new curriculum, which will need teachers to be in-serviced to understand the expected pedagogy; we will work together with both the ministry and TSC to get the best thing done.

There is a feeling that Knut and other unions should not impose unrealistic demands on TSC and that you should be ready to accept whatever little you will be given for the sake of the learners. What is your take? Kelvin Makori

I may not have the necessary competency to know what is unrealistic. All demands made to the employer are always as a product of research on the inflation and the prevailing economic situations of our country. Teachers must not be scared of going for a strike as long as it is legal. However, we shall ensure we explore all the avenues before we even talk of a strike.

The Daily Nation highlighted a story of a teacher who was walking 40 kilometers with national examination materials from the collection centre in Narok. Well, many teachers suffer same fate. How will Knut end such cases? Dan Murugu, Nakuru

We are aware of such challenges facing teachers during national examinations. We have talked to Knec about this but we know we have not achieved the best . We are looking forward  to engaging them more.

This week, Mr Collins Oyuu, the Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary-general, answers your questions.

What is the future of Knut given the government’s hard-line position on remittance of union dues?Wilfred Nganyi, Dagoreti. 

The future of Knut is luminous. We have already known where our problem was and we are determined to address it. We will iron out the issues that brought bad industrial relations between ourselves and the employer and there is no doubt we are safe in both the foreseeable and the unforeseeable future.

Next week: Mr Edward Njoroge, the acting chief executive officer of the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa).