TSC Contract Employment is Illegal, Says KUPPET as Teachers’ Strike Continues

TSC Contract Employment is Illegal, Says KUPPET as Teachers’ Strike Continues

Omboko Milemba, chairman of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), stated that the TSC is legally required to employ teachers on permanent terms, not on contract.

He mentioned that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is constitutionally mandated to employ teachers on a Permanent and Pensionable (P and P) basis. Milemba spoke on Wednesday during an interview with Citizen TV.

Milemba was reminiscent of the internship program first introduced in 2011, noting that TSC had never before employed teachers on an internship or temporary basis.

When tried to temporarily employ teachers referred to as interns, KUPPET went to court and won.

The teachers who were employed as interns in 2011 were eventually employed on permanent and pensionable terms in 2012, after which the program was stopped until Junior Secondary School teachers were needed and the internship program was brought back.

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He noted that when teachers were taken as interns in 2023, they were promised permanent and pensionable terms after a year in the temporary position.

However, agitation erupted when the government changed the goalposts to require two years as interns before they would receive permanent contracts.

He mentioned a promissory note from the government and the parliament’s education committee, promising to employ the interns on permanent and pensionable terms in the next financial year.

The JSS interns want assurance from the TSC that when the new financial year comes, they will get permanent and pensionable contracts. 

Teachers’ Right to Fair Labour Practices

Omboko emphasized that this assurance is key to settling the matter, adding that they have written to TSC and the National Treasury to ensure that teachers are on P and P terms in the next financial year, which begins in June.

This statement comes even as the JSS intern teachers’ strike entered its second week. On 17 April, Justice Bryrum Ongaya of the Employment and Labour Relations Court ruled that TSC violated the intern teachers’ right to fair labor practice.

The government plans to put 26,000 JSS intern teachers on permanent and pensionable status in the next financial year starting from June 2024.

TSC Contract Employment is Illegal, Says KUPPET as Teachers’ Strike Continues

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