A collective agreement is a written or written agreement between an employer and a trade union that sets out the terms and conditions of employment or contains provisions relating to the rates of pay, hours of work or other conditions of employment of workers. For more information, visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_agreement. The current Collective Agreement (CBA) between the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) expires on 30 June 2021. In a letter to KNUT on 4 November, Nancy Macharia, the Commission`s director-general, said the agreement signed 51 years ago would be revoked on the grounds that the union`s membership is currently less than the required simple majority. “In accordance with the provisions of clause 2 of the recognition agreement between the Teachers Service Commission and the Kenya National Union of Teachers and section 4(1) of the Labour Relations Act, in 2007 the Commission adopted a two-month period for KNUT to terminate and/or revoke the recognition agreement of 15 May 1968 for the following reasons: the signing of the CBA between the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is aimed at resolving frequent teachers` strikes. The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) is now accusing the teachers` employer of opposing President Uhuru Kenyatta`s instruction to withdraw any dispute between them. Sossion is calling for at least a 120 percent wage increase in the 2021-2023 collective agreement, as in 2017 the government expects an increase of between 50 and 60 percent in the 2017-2021 CBA. The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has issued two months` notice to terminate its recognition agreement with the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT). “The call is indeed an attempt at predictability and clarity and stability in the labour sector. It is not a competition with the union. It stems from the desire to promote good working relations between employers and trade unions. “Despite the foregoing and the fact that the parties have negotiated and entered into a cost-benefit statement since then, it is now clear that the first respondent (TSC) broke the withdrawal agreement from this appeal with respect to the dispute and insisted on continuing in the greatest bad faith and in total disregard of the President.
Knut lawyer John Mbaluto argued. According to the Chair of the Commission`s Board of Directors, Nancy Macharia, the 2013-2017 agreement aims to take into account teachers` salaries and allowances and to restore discipline in the education sector. In its first proposal to TSC, the Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers called for a base salary increase of between 50 and 60 percent. In addition, James Torome, Secretary General of KUSNET, wants a special allowance of Ksh 15,000 per month and a consultancy allowance of Ksh 30,000. He suggested that special education teachers receive Ksh 15,000 per year of unit money. “It has consolidated the increases made over the years in the field of education, especially from 2013 to the present day.