Kuppet wins big as 46,000 JS teachers set join union

The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) has received a boost to its membership with the 46,000 junior school teachers recently employed by the government set to join the union.

The Business Daily has confirmed that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has started deducting agency fees from the 46,000 teachers whose employment was converted to permanent and pensionable in January and forwarding it to Kuppet.

The union will meet representatives of the teachers on Tuesday to discuss their membership in the union.

Kuppet acting Secretary-General Moses Nthurima confirmed that the union received the agency fees deducted from the teachers from their February salaries.

This brings an end to the tussle for the teachers between Kuppet and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), which mainly draws its membership from primary school teachers.

“We’re still talking to them to build consensus to join by validating their membership through the online portal.

Under Section 49 of the Labour Relations Act, it is provided that a worker who enjoys a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiated by a union will pay equivalent to union dues. So the JS teachers came to a CBA negotiated by Kuppet. So, the majority are paying agency fees. Others are now members, about 9,000 of them are our members,” said Mr Nthurima.

Non-Kuppet members are charged an agency fee of 1.8 percent of their basic salary, the same rate members pay as union dues.
However, junior school teachers have demanded representation in Kuppet national executive positions.

The JSS teachers formed the Kenya Junior School Teachers Association (Kejusta) last year to agitate for their rights.

Interim officials of the association confirmed an invitation by Kuppet for a consultative meeting to discuss pertinent issues.

“The Kuppet National Executive Board has the pleasure to invite the under-mentioned leaders to a consultative meeting with the Kuppet NEB in Nairobi. By a copy of this letter, Kuppet requests the respective heads of institution to grant permission for the teachers to attend the meeting,” reads a letter by Mr Nthurima.

Read: Junior school teachers now demand internship arrears

Initially, the teachers were weighing joining either Kuppet or Knut. They had demanded over 100 positions from the unions saying they needed equitable representation.

Their national chairperson and spokesperson of the Kejusta Omari Omari, confirmed the teachers have all been put under Kuppet.

“The unions have an agreement to put all primary school teachers in Knut and all post-primary teachers under Kuppet. We are however not satisfied by the treatment we are getting from Kuppet. Even with our big numbers of over 46,000 teachers we have only been given only one slot in the leadership,” said Mr Omari.

“It is an assistant to the senior secondary secretary. We are wondering why we are being treated as second-class members while we contribute over Sh40 million per month to Kuppet,” he added.

He accused the union of having “abandoned” them, saying many JS teachers face harassment and mistreatment in the primary schools but Kuppet has never made a statement about the same.

“Knut has been all over very actively defending and protecting their members (the headteachers who assault our JS members,” he said.
He cited the recent cases reported in Nyamira and Turkana counties where some JSS teachers were allegedly physically assaulted headteachers.

“In all these, Kuppet has not come out to help calm the situation. We agree that most of our teachers are very young and need guidance, they might be making mistakes. But there are ways laid down on how best to correct them. The TSC Code of Conducts is clear,” said Mr Omari.

He confirmed they will attend the meeting with the Kuppet National Executive Board.

“We shall also be advocating for the correction of the wrongs in the new constitution. JS teachers fought for their employment single-handedly but we are now under Kuppet remitting millions monthly. It’s now only fair that they give us a proper number of slots in the union and also have our issues in their agenda list,” said Mr Omari.

Other agendas they will table include compensation for the time they served under the ‘internship’, promotion and independence of JS (administration) from primary schools.

“Since they have started taking JSS teacher's money now, it’s only fair that they give the JS teachers representation now. No taxation without representation,” said Mr Omar.

During the Knut delegate’s conference in Mombasa in December last year, the JS teachers demanded positions in the giant union. Mr Omari demanded 500 positions within the union nationwide as a condition for their membership.

“As JSS teachers, we have faced numerous challenges that remained unresolved due to the lack of union representation. We were advised to form or join a union to effectively voice our concerns. While we have the option to join Kuppet or Knut, we have specific demands that need to be addressed,” said Mr Omari.

However, Knut Secretary-General Collins Oyuu asked them to be patient as their demands were addressed.

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