MPs have moved to quell the bad blood between the teachers employer and the unions.
On Monday, the National Assembly Committee on Education had a session with the two main teachers' unions and the Teachers Service Commission to review the labour relations between the entities.
The unions are the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet).
There has been a frosty relationship between the commission and the unions, especially Knut, leading to a number of court cases.
The commission, however, has no court case from Kuppet.
“There are a number of suits that have been filed by the Kenya National Union of Teachers against the TSC,” commision's chief executive Nancy Macharia said in her submission before the committee.
One of the cases in which Knut has locked horns with the TSC is against the transfer of institutional administrators in 2017 in line with implementation of the CBA.
Knut also challenged the commission’s decision to issue it with a notice to revoke TSC/Knut Recognition Agreement of 1968. The matter is still pending.
On the other hand, the commission in December 2018 also filed a case against Knut to forestall an industrial action, which was scheduled to commence on January 2, 2019. The strike was to coincide with the opening of schools for the 2019 academic calendar.
Knut secretary general Wilson Sossion blamed the commission for the many protracted court cases. He said that the TSC has been acting in bad faith.
Edited by A.N