MP Questions TSC Over Teachers Salary Disparity
MP Questions TSC Over Teachers Salary Disparity. Charles Nguna, the Mwingi West MP, has called attention to the pay disparity that competent teachers employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) face.
Nguna officially petitioned Parliament on Wednesday, August 16 to remedy the disparity in teacher pay, which ranged from Ksh25,000 to Ksh36,000.
Nearly 1,000 teachers are affected by this issue, which was brought on by occurrences that took place prior to the 2017 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between Teachers and their employer, TSC, according to Nguna’s allegation.
After going through interviews for senior graduate teacher posts, these teachers were offered the position of headteachers under Job Group M in 2018 (now known as Job Group C5).
These teachers were not promoted to higher job groups where their counterparts received higher compensation once the 2017 CBA was approved.
The colleagues who had the same interviews and were appointed headteachers before the July 2017 CBA are now classified under Job Group D1 and are earning more money, according to Nguna.
Both groups of teachers have differing incomes and benefits despite sharing the same duties, having the same qualifications, and falling under the same occupational category.
Nguna emphasized the discrepancies, noting that while some of the best recent graduates have been chosen as headteachers, others with comparable qualifications are still in Job Group C5 rather than Job Group D1.
The MP also pointed out that these individuals were not taken into consideration in either the most recent TSC promotion campaign, which involved 14,738 teachers, nor the promotion plans for 12,634 educators.
Furthermore, according to the petition, “the teachers are struggling with a sense of discrimination due to these concerns, causing a decline in their morale as they diligently perform their duties.”
“The academics made every effort to resolve the problem, but no appropriate steps or responses were implemented. Individual letters to TSC requesting for fair compensation have been written so far, and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has been contacted to take action.
Nguna is asking Parliament to provide the TSC the authority to retroactively implement these reforms from 2018, when they were given these responsibilities, while also evaluating the salaries and benefits of the affected teachers.