The government of Kenya is allegedly working on plans to make its proposals on the much hyped 2021-2025 CBA for teachers and other civil servants.

In the proposal, the government is said to planning to invoke a clause under the four-year agreement that will allow it to freeze the payout in case of eventualities such as a pandemic. What is yet to come out clearly is whether the entirely will be frozen out in case of a pandemic or the agreed increment within the four-year CBA. Additionally, its not clear if the frozen cash will be paid in arrears after the pandemic.

These plans come at a time when the government has learnt some labour lessons with regards to pandemics, following the covid-19 pandemic. The government, which has been adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, is said to be at its wits’ end given the need to prioritise the CBAs for all the sensitive sectors including teachers, security and health by the end of financial year in June.

Read Also:

KCPE Results 2020-Best Schools and Candidates Per County

We want 2021-2025 CBA or We down our Tools: KNUT

Treasury Turns Down Teachers’ 2021-2025 CBA

Principal summoned To Record a statement for ashaming the government 

TPAD defaulters To Face severe punishment

New TSC Chair: Teachers Must Go back to Refresher courses

Muturi : I have good plans with Non Beneficiaries of 2017-2021 CBA Final Phase

SRC Approves KUSNETs 2021-2025 CBA Proposal

Basic Salary Increments Per Job Group As Per The 2021-2025 TSC CBA Proposal

Throughout the covid-19 pandemic, the government has been paying civil servants full salaries, including the additional perks that were agreed in the previous CBA. Sources very close to the government corridors have revealed that the government is committed to avoid this mistake in the future, and the only possible way to do it is to sneak a clause into the agreement.

The indicators of these recent plans are evident from the treasury’s rejection of SRC’s 68b shillings request to enhance salary increments for various government employees, as projected in the CBAs.

TSC had assured teachers’ unions that salary talks would commence immediately SRC gets the award from the Treasury to define the negotiation beacons. However, this may never happen unless interventions are devised. Treasury is ready to release only ksh. 8b to effect salary increments for all the affected civil servants. This translates to only about ksh 2B for the over 350,000 teachers. Worse of all, this ksh 2B may be frozen when a pandemic hit or persists.

Details show that SRC had requested the money to harmonise workers pay and to effect new salary raise once the job evaluation is completed.

The Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) are expected to end on June 30, giving way to the next four-year cycle of remuneration based on job evaluations. But this now seems to hang in the balance as details show that the government will not make available the funds.

Classroom teachers, who were underpaid under the present CBA, will be most hit as they were expected to be the greatest beneficiaries in the next phase of salary reviews.

SRC this week held a meeting with the chair of the Council of Governors (CoG), seeking to manage what threatens to degenerate into a full-blown labour crisis. So far, KNUT, through its secretary general Wilson Sossion, has threatened a teachers’ strike in case the benefits of the 2021-2025 CBA will be lower than those in 2017-2021 CBA. He has confirmed his awareness of the treasury rejecting SRC’s request and warned that such a move will attract a grand industrial action from all civil servants.

In a very shocking development, the salaries and remuneration commission, SRC, has revealed that public servants’ future salary increments will depend on the state of the country’s economy. Details about this were written in the recently published draft remuneration guidelines for public sector.

“Ability of the economy to sustain increased labour cost shall be considered in determining the level and timing of any awards on remuneration,” states SRC in the draft remuneration guidelines for public sector.

READ ALSO:

List Of Private Schools That Have Shut Down Per County

SRC’s 2021-2025 CBA Shocker For Teachers

SRC Pledges To Bridge Huge Salary Gaps Among Teachers In 2021-2025 CBA

SRC Brings Good News For Teachers in Job Group C3 and Diploma Holders Regarding 2021-2025 CBA

Teachers’ January 2021 Basic Salary Scales After Pension Deductions

KUPPET’s End Year Report Spells Teachers’ Roles and Challenges When schools Reopen Next Week

TSC Employees on Leave recalled Ahead of January reopening

We Are in Short of 1M Masks To Give To Needy Children: Magoha

Deposit Union Dues Directly to KNUT Bank accounts: KNUT Reminds Members

KNUT Proposes A Two Year Collective Bargaining Agreement

According to SRC, the negotiated CBA between the trade unions and the employers led to 19% increase in labour cost, a figure that is far much above the annual growth rate in labour productivity. This trend has gone contrary to article 230(5) of the constitution since it has led to a broken link between labour productivity and pay. According to the article, productivity and performance must be considered to determine remuneration and benefits in the public sector.

Covid-19 has left the economy struggling and the treasury CS has warned Kenyans to brace for tight cost cutting measures, including pay cuts for civil servants.

“In an economy where the government is advocating for pay cuts of employees, it would be hard for the same government to increase salaries for some work force,” read the guideline.

SRC has also introduced performance linked pay system, which if applied, any salary increment will be considered based on employee performance.

Earlier on, TSC had hinted strongly that a number of factors will determine remuneration of teachers. As discussed with top KUPPET officials in the Naivasha meeting, these factors include: affordability, sustainability, comparability, government fiscal policies and guidelines, and teacher performance and productivity.

In consultation with SRC, TSC conducted a job evaluation exercise for teachers in 2015/2016.Through the findings, SRC recommended a new grading structure and remuneration of teachers, which has fully been implemented.

The evaluation also defined parameters applicable for determining new teachers’ salaries. These include; teacher’s job content, related duties, minimum qualifications, each job group’s decision making level, requisite accountability, impact of the job, problem solving and job knowledge.

Other key considerations include; managerial skills, working conditions, responsibility, and independent judgment of the job holder.

The recently released guidelines by SRC stress state of economy and employee performance as the major dominants of future salary increments.