NO LOOSERS AND WINNERS DURING INDUSTRIAL ACTION

Sometimes due to unsatisfactory remuneration by employers, workers through their trade unions file cases against their employers and at times this happens when workers have downed their tools. So was the Kenyan situation for the past five weeks where teachers downed their tools and went on strike leaving students and especially the candidates who are to sit for their exams mid-October. The sad thing being during all this hustle and tussle the students did not have anybody to defend their right to education.

After the long court battle there still was no resolution forcing the teachers to go back to class and their union leaders to go back to the negotiating table and come up with a solution failure to which after ninety days they resume with their strike and lengthy court battles. There is no solution for the students who failed to acquire the important education that is the main driving force for acquiring a decent job in Kenya. Furthermore, the days they lost will not be compensated since they are to sit for their final examinations (which might shape the direction of the rest of their lives)

With the Kenyan government struggling with an ever expanding wage bill that is currently at 51 percent of the total government expenditure, a strike by their largest body of civil servants (teachers) is a force to reckon with. The wage bill issue seems to be the main agenda the government is banking on, and its increase, as they say, will affect the current economic situation in Kenya in a negative way.  I give them credit for trying to curb the runaway wage bill and with advice from the salaries and remuneration commission (SRC) they have advised the teachers union on the matter that it would be unsustainable to fulfill their current 50-60% pay increase and that after consideration when the Kenyan economy grows to a level that it can sustain the increase in salaries they will be considered.

 After looking at the numbers behind the Kenyan budget their argument makes sense and an increase of teachers’ salaries by 50-60% would raise the wage bill from the current 51% to 61% leaving only 39% for development expenditure as well as other government expenditures. In this kind of situation it is important to note that it means that the few 1.5 million government employed servants will be taking home 61% of the national budget, leaving 29% for the unemployed 30+ million people, a very unfair situation.

I would like to urge the teachers union as well as other workers unions to also consider the other members of the society who, although they do not represent, also require basic services like health and social services as well as development of infrastructure from the government. Furthermore, the increase in teacher’s salaries may mean increased taxation on the general of which public 99% are not being teachers. It’s time we become our brothers and sisters keepers and not want to have it all.

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