TSC SHOCKER: KNUT IN TROUBLE AGAIN AS THE TEACHERS SERVICE COMMISSION FAILS TO DEDUCT KSHS 143 MILLION ON BEHALF OF THE UNION AS DECEMBER SALARY
KNUT’S BLACK CHRISTMAS
In Summary
KNUT officials are a worried lot even as Christmas approaches as the Teachers Service Commission, TSC deliberately avoided collecting the union’s dues from KNUT members as payment for December 2019.
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KNUT union’s activities are thus likely to be crippled due to insufficient funds.
Speaking yesterday to The Standard, KNUT Secretary General Mr Wilson Sossion confirmed that although the teachers’ pay slips for December are out, the Commission did not deduct the union’s dues, again!
The Kenya Nationa Union of Teachers is yet to come to terms with the fact that it might be rendered bankrupt soon after the Teachers Service Commission failed to deduct the union’s dues from its employees.
KNUT Secretary General Mr Wilson Sossion confirmed the incident to The Standard on December 22 2019.
According to Sossion, TSC is supposed to deduct 2% of the teachers’(who are KNUT union members) basic salary and give it to KNUT to enable the union to run its day to day activities.
Session said that KNUT is hence unable to pay its 2700 staff across the country December salaries due to lack of funds.
Currently, KNUT has got a total of 2700 employees: 2000 across the 110 KNUT branches and 70 at KNUT’s head office.
According to the union’s expenditure, 61% of its money is received from remitted dues by the TSC.
The 61% translates to Kshs 84.5 million disbursed to the union’s branches each month whereas the remaining 38% which translates to Kshs 54 million is used to run activities at the KNUT headquarters.
“KILLING KNUT”
According to Mr Sossion, the Teachers Service Commission was ordered to continue remitting union dues to KNUT but the Commission has continued to act with impunity aiming at “killing the union.”
KNUT’s report shows that the union has lost revenues for three months: December, July and August.
This translates to around Kshs 420 million.
In September 2019 the union lost Kshs 70 million and in October Kshs 73 million due to TSC’s failure to honour its part of the bargain.
Last month, the union lost Kshs 76 million. The total amount of money lost by KNT is Kshs 639 million. Failure to deduct union dues for KNUT has starved KNUT and crippled its activities completely.
LOST DUES
According to Sossion, 80, 000 KNUT members have been struck off its payroll denying the union its full membership.
The Teachers Service Commission introduced a digital platform for validating KNUT union membership status without involving the union.
KNUT’s Secretary-General feels that this digital platform was targeting KNUT members.
COLLECT MONEY DIRECTLY
The Teachers Service Commission had previously argued that KNUT should find an alternative way of collecting its dues from teachers whenever it fails to do so.
This is quite impractical since KNUT’s members are spread across the entire country.
In KNUT’s end of the year 2019 media briefing, the union said that the TSC should act in a civilized manner and serve as a role model by obeying court orders and ruling. This statement was issued on December 19.
Could the Commission’s failure to deduct KNUT union dues be another tough lesson for KNUT…?
