Ruto Kicks Out Teachers & Civil Servants Union From Salary Negotiation
The custom of inviting teachers’ and civil servants’ unions to negotiate pay and benefit packages for their members has been banned by President William Ruto.
In a paradigm shift, Dr. Ruto is now completely relying on the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to decide how much government employees should be paid in salary and benefits.
educators’ union The new 7–10% wage raise announced by SRC has already been debunked by Knut. Collins Oyuu, the secretary general of Knut, claims that taxes are the government’s method of providing with one hand while taking with the other.
Through a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) they signed with TSC in 2021, Knut and Kuppet have been agitating for a pay rise.
They demanded that the non-monetary CBA be revised to take salary increases into account. However, they were taken aback when President William Ruto ordered SRC to make changes after announcing a wage increase of 7–10% for all employees.
The continuing CBA negotiations have now been abandoned by TSC. Knut had called for a 14-day strike, but it never happened since the instructors disobeyed the order.
The two teachers unions were most recently invited to the State House together with a number of other unions to mobilise support for the 2023 Finance Act and were promised pay raises if the economy improved.
On Wednesday, August 9, 2023, SRC formally announced the significant wage raise of 7–10% for teachers, government employees, and state officers, which will take effect on July 1st.
Eighty-three percent (Sh18.2 billion) of the Sh21.66 billion set aside for compensation reviews in the current fiscal year has gone to three groups of employees.
TSC has received Sh9.6 billion (44.2%) while county governments and uniformed and disciplined forces have each received Sh4.5 billion.
According to SRC, the review was intended to standardise salaries across the public sector in order to achieve equity and fairness, and it adjusted salaries in favour of the lowest earners in national and county governments while partially freezing salary increases for the highest earners, who were primarily employed by State corporations and secretariat staff in commissions and independent offices.
According to Ms. Mengich, the wage reviews, which will take effect in the current and following fiscal years, are aimed at bringing low earnings up to the optimal salary range.
With the annual 3% rise that has been in effect, the average compensation increase for the employees will be between 7% and 10%.
“This evaluation focuses on pay harmonisation; we want to achieve pay justice and fairness. According to SRC Chairperson Lyn Mengich, it’s not really about getting paid more, which is why there hasn’t been much of an increase for State firms.
Ms. Mengich continued, “The commission discovered enormous disparities, with some agencies paying huge salaries while workers in other agencies earn peanuts. We did this by commissioning labour market salary surveys to find out how different public agencies pay their workers compared to their comparable private sector counterparts.
The 50th percentile of earnings paid to comparable private sector peers was chosen by the SRC as the appropriate range for compensation when ranking jobs according to their current gross pay.
The teaching service is placed last in the model, at the 36th percentile, and is followed by government employees at the national and local levels, at the 39th percentile.
Secretariat employees in commissions and autonomous offices come in at 84th percentile, while some state businesses come in at the top of the list at 89th percentile.
Low-income individuals
According to Ms. Mengich, the wage reviews, which will take effect in the current and following fiscal years, are aimed at bringing low earnings up to the optimal salary range.
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“The public service has unequal pay and benefit systems as a result of historical factors. The disparities in our remuneration structures are demonstrated by the various market positions, which range from the 36th to the 89th percentile, Ms Mengich said. As a result, this review aims to adjust salaries that are below the 50th percentile in order to achieve equity and fairness.
With the annual 3% rise that has been in effect, the average compensation increase for the employees will be between 7% and 10%.
The wage raise will be retroactive to July 1, thus government employees are already owing the July extra contributions.
However, employees of companies who presently pay their employees large wages will only be eligible for the yearly 3% rise.
“Despite the fact that pay structures are locked, a raise is nonetheless provided as a result of notch increments that take place. A pay freeze in State corporations does not preclude compensation increases in the future. For State corporations that are also significantly below the 50th percentile, there will be exceptions. These will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, according to Ms. Mengich.
Ruto Kicks Out Teachers & Civil Servants Union From Salary Negotiation
The commission’s implementation of the 2021/22-2024/25 compensation and benefits review cycle includes the proposed salary increase. The commission decided to freeze wage increases in the first two years of the cycle—2021/22 and 2022/23—on Treasury’s advice because of the Covid-19 epidemic.
However, according to SRC and Treasury, the economy has recovered since last year, and things are expected to continue going well.
The Sh21.66 billion allocation, according to Treasury CS Njuguna Ndung’u, was significantly less than what SRC had requested, but Treasury made the decision to provide it to them based on economic performance. To completely integrate pay and benefits across the public service, the panel had estimated that Sh340 billion would be required.
“The National Treasury appreciates the fact that this is not what the SRC would have required, but they have considered the slow economic recovery and the economic structure, they have looked at the structural inequality of growth, and they have listened to the National Treasury,” Prof. Ndung’u stated.
The CS added that the approach used to determine who would receive the extra pay was based on taking into account the government employees who had been hit hardest by the current financial crisis.
“We are budgeting that for this year and a similar amount for next year because we are conscious that we have to come down to the realities that public sector workers are struggling because of shocks that have hit the economy,” the CS stated.
Teachers are anticipated to move up from the 36th to the 39th percentile in terms of pay, and county and national government employees are anticipated to move up from the 39th to the 42nd percentile in terms of pay.
“The goal is for those who are below to advance and catch up to those who are high. That is the main idea behind this third round of compensation reviews. Amani Komora, SRC Vice-Chair, said: “We are mainly looking at how to gradually harmonise those that are at the lowest level, the TSC and the PSC, into a better position.
After notifying public entities in the federal and local governments to eliminate or evaluate four allowances that it views as double compensation, the commission made the increase public.
The allowances include retreat—which is suggested to be eliminated—taskforce—which is suggested to be reviewed and, in certain cases, eliminated—as well as daily subsistence and sitting allowances for members of internal institutional committees. All of these are subject to examination.
Ruto Kicks Out Teachers & Civil Servants Union From Salary Negotiation
