The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has confirmed that it will issue a new pay structure for all government employees in June.

SRC chairperson Lyn Mengich told the Senate Education Committee that her team is currently reviewing the pay of government employees, teachers included, under the third remuneration review cycle.

According to Mengich, the review will include salaries of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers, other teachers, and all persons employed by the government.

“In line with SRC’s mandate of setting, reviewing and advising on the remuneration and benefits in the public service, SRC will continue to engage and respond to stakeholders as appropriate,” she said.

Pursuant to Section (11) of the SRC Act 2011, SRC set a four-year review cycle of remuneration and benefits in the public sector.

The first cycle covered the period between the years 2013-14-2016-17 and the second cycle covered the years 2017-18-2021-22.

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Whilst SRC envisages that most jobs may not have significantly changed, it shall undertake the evaluation of new jobs and jobs identified by institutions to have significantly changed.

The outcome of the job evaluation shall be used in developing job grading structures.

During her presentation to the committee on Thursday, Mengich noted that during the 9th Summit held on 10-12, February 2023, in Naivasha it was agreed that county governments shall develop a framework on ECDE and seek advice from SRC on affordable remuneration and benefits.

Mengich had appeared before the committee to deliberate on the plight of ECDE teachers and caregivers in the counties.

In a circular purportedly issued by the SRC dated January 13, 2023, the commission directed county governments to implement the new grading and salary structures which proposes a pay cut of between Sh7,383 and Sh10,803.

Mengich dismissed the circular as erroneous and misleading.

Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers, Kuppet, has demanded a better counter offer from TSC for teachers’ new salaries.

This comes one  week to the expiry of the Sh54 billion four-year salary deal signed between TSC  and unions in 2016.

The new demand also comes after the announcement by Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) that salary reviews will be frozen for the next two years due to effects of Covid-19 pandemic.

“There will be no review of the basic salary structures, allowances and benefits paid in the public sector in the financial year 2021/22 to 2022/23,” said Lyn Mengich.

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Kuppet board meeting however resolved to press on with salaries review for the 2021-2025 CBA.

Through a letter written on  June 23^rd 2021 to TSC Chief Executive Nancy Macharia, Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori accused the TSC of being insincere in CBA talks.

Misori said Kuppet has been waiting for a counter offer to its demands under the new CBA process for more than a year.

Kuppet had settled for a salary increment of between 30 and 70 per cent for the new 2021-2025 while TSC is reported to have proposed between 16 to 32 per cent.

In her proposals to SRC, Dr Macharia recommended that teachers below Grade C4 to D5 get a 16 per cent salary increment while teachers in Grade B5 to C3 would get a 32 per cent raise.

“This is therefore to submit to your office the TSC recommendations for your advisory on the remuneration of teachers for the next CBA as required by the Constitution and the law to enable us commence and conclude the 2021-2025 CBA with recognised teacher unions on time,” Dr Macharia said.

Kuppet is now demanding an immediate meeting to streamline the negotiations process, which it says has been hijacked by the SRC, whose mandate is only advisory.

“The purpose of this letter, therefore, is to communicate our readiness to meet your teams at the earliest possible convenience during the remaining days to the expiry of the current CBA,” said Misori.

The union official asked the TSC to take charge of the process to its logical conclusion.

“We urge you (TSC) to expeditiously address this situation by honouring your commitment to negotiate in good faith. In the interest of industrial peace that we have enjoyed under the CBA framework since 2017, then TSC must give union a counter offer without any further delay,” said Misori.

The union also accused SRC for hijacking the pay talks, saying the union is only mandated to engage the employer on salaries reviews.

“SRC cannot by law make summary resolutions blocking negotiations as provided under the Constitution and legislation. Moreover, SRC regulations explicitly state that it does not negotiate with trade unions in the formulation of CBAs,” said Misori.

Misori said the union will reject the SRC pay rise freeze, saying it will alter CBA negotiations timelines.

“If we allow another two-year freeze, it means that they will be sneaking a new cycle of salaries negotiations from four to six years and this will be unacceptable,” said Misori.

He said that the four-year cycle already goes against the International Labour Organisations (ILO) convection and noted that teachers will not sit and watch further breaches.

With the 2017-2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) having been implemented fully by the Teachers service commission, TSC, plans are underway to launch the 2021-2024 CBA. Up to now, there has not been a proper agreement between the TSC and the teachers’ unions, KNUT and KUPPET concerning the 2021-2024 CBA.

On basic salary, KNUT proposed an increment of between 120 % and 200 %. The rival KUPPET advocated for an increment of between 30 % and 70 % on the basic salary.

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The teachers’ service commission, TSC, proposed an increment of between 16 % and 32 % on the basic salary. The TSC CBA proposal was bilaterally opposed by both unions, KNUT and KUPPET. The two unions claimed that they were negotiating for perks slightly better than what the TSC proposed.

The teachers’ service commission however sneaked their proposal to the Salaries and remuneration commission, SRC, without reaching a consensus with KNUT and KUPPET.

If the SRC approves the TSC proposal document, then all teachers will have their basic salaries increased by between 16 %- 32 %. Teachers in lower job groups will be favoured compared to those in higher job groups in 2021-2024 TSC CBA proposals.

A summary of the additional salaries teachers will earn if the proposal is approved is in the table below. Even though teachers in higher job groups will get a lower percentage increase, their overall increase may still be higher than those in lower job groups since their current basic salaries are far much higher.

Teachers in job group D5 for instance will have a salary increase of between ksh. 21,020- Ksh. 25-224 while the highest earning teacher in the lowest job group, B5, will take home an additional ksh. 8,702.

Members of job group C3 however may earn higher increments than their counterparts in job groups C4, C5 and D1 since the percentage increments will favour C3 and the difference in the current basic salaries between C3 and the three will not neutralize the net increment.