More than 190,000 teachers both in primary and secondary schools who are non-unionsable but still enjoy services of unions, including the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) will be deducted agency fee.
The decision will be a big blow to the 172,000 members who left KNUT owing to its bad relation ship with TSC.
According to Part VI of the Labour Relations Act 14 of 2007, the Commission is required to deduct and pay to a trade union an agency fee from the salary of each unionsable employee, who is not a member of the union, but who has benefited from a Collective Agreement negotiated and concluded between the union and the Commission.
The fee offers a ray of hope to Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) since it has not been receiving agency fees since June 2019 when it had a row with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
KNUT will now depend the non–unionisable members to fund its operations, which have been grounded to a halt due to cash crunch.
The Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teach ers (Kusnet), which recently signed a CBA for the first time with the TSC last week, will charge non–members an agency fee of 1.45 percent of their basic salary.
Kusnet Secretary–General James Torome said once the 2021–2025 CBA is registered in court, all 7,000 special needs teachers who have not yet joined the union will have to pay an agency fee of 1.45 per cent.
In accordance to Knut constitution, all teachers who are not its members are required to pay an agency fee of 2 per cent of their basic salary to enjoy the benefits of a negotiated CBA.
The constitution of Kenya Union of Post–Primary Teachers (Kuppet) dictates that teachers who are not their members should be charged an agency fee of 1.8 per cent of their basic salary.