Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Kenya (Ratification: 1964)

Referring to its previous direct request, whereby it asked the Government to indicate the measures that had been taken to give Kenyan teachers the right to organise and bargain collectively their terms and conditions of employment, the Committee notes that, while maintaining for the time being its previous position with regard to collective bargaining in the civil service and education, the Government will consult the relevant authorities and thereafter report again to the ILO. The Committee further notes that the Government appointed a new Civil Service Salaries Review Committee (in charge of regulating the terms and conditions of employment of public servants, including teachers) on which sits, inter alia, a representative of the teachers.

The Committee recalls that under Articles 4 and 6 of the Convention, Kenya should take measures to promote voluntary negotiation between the State as employer and the teachers, since this category of workers which, according to the Government's own figures, constitute the largest single group of unionised workers, should not be excluded from the scope of the Convention since they cannot be considered as public servants engaged in the administration of the State.

Accordingly, the Committee requests once more the Government to indicate in its next report the measures taken, after consultation with the authorities concerned, to give Kenyan teachers the right to organise and bargain collectively their terms and conditions of employment.