Mwingi West MP Charles Nguna has lifted the lid on a pay discrepancy qualified teachers under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) are forced to endure in their service delivery.
In a petition he filed before Parliament on Wednesday, August 16, the lawmaker argued that there was a pay gap between Ksh25,000 and Ksh36,000 among teachers deployed to perform the same roles.
Nguna argued that nearly 1,000 teachers had been caught up in the mess that started before the 2017 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was reached between the tutors and their employer, the Teacher's Service Commission (TSC).
The teachers had been subjected to interviews for senior graduate teacher positions and subsequently deployed to serve as headteachers under Job Group M (renamed to Job Group C5) in 2018.
However, after the 2017 CBA was passed, the teachers were not promoted to the next job groups in which their equals earn more money.
"Their counterparts who went through the same interview and became headteachers before the July 2017 CBA are now in Job Group D1 and earning higher salaries," argued the MP.
"The two categories of teachers have the same qualifications, same job group, are performing same roles and facing the same challenges yet earn different salaries and allowances."
Nguna argued that there exists discrepancies where some senior graduate teachers are serving as headteachers, yet others with the same qualifications are still in Job Group C5 instead of Job Group D1.
The lawmaker also noted that the affected individuals were neither factored in the recently advertised TSC promotions for 14,738 teachers nor in the 12,634 tutors slated for promotion.
"Due to the aforementioned concerns, the teachers feel discriminated and are demoralized even as they continue to undertake their duties," the petition added.
"The teachers have made their best efforts to have the matter addressed and resolved but there were no satisfactory responses or action. The said efforts include individual letters to TSC seeking fair remuneration and engagement with Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) to intervene."
Nguna is therefore seeking Parliament to compel TSC to review the salaries and allowances of the affected teachers and backdated their pay to 2018, when they were deployed.
In February, the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education of Teachers (KUPPET) noted that teachers lost Ksh2 billion after TSC delayed the promotion of some 124,105 teachers for five years.
The union argued that the failure of TSC to promote teachers forced them to remain in the same job grade for at least five years.
