Teachers’ Service Commission Implementation of 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement on Medical and Commuter Allowances as Predictors of Job Satisfaction among Primary School Teachers in Kenya

Abstract

Collective bargaining is an industrial instrument; a mechanism and a facet of negotiation which is appropriate to building relationship among employees and workers. The process provides a ground for employees to be involved in decision making regarding their careers, hence improving or even perfecting their job quality. Teachers working in favourable working environments are therefore expected to express high levels of job satisfaction. The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of Teachers Service Commission implementation of the 2017-2021Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) regarding medical and commuter allowances on primary school teachers’ job satisfaction in Kenya. The study was guided by the Industrial Relations (IR) theory which is concerned with relationships between employees and their employer at an organizational setting. Guided by the descriptive survey design; the study had a target population of 188,765 KNUT registered teachers from whom 399 were included in the study (sample) using stratified sampling by use of Slovin’s formula. In addition, two legal officers (from TSC and KNUT) were also included in the study; translating to a sample of 401 respondents. A questionnaire for teachers was used to collect data while interview schedules were used to obtain views from the legal officers. Quantitative data was fed into SPSS and used to generate frequencies, means and standard deviations used for interpretations. The qualitative data was interpreted by searching commonalities. The overall level of job satisfaction was established to rate below average, µ=2.0969. The effect of implementation of the CBA by the TSC rated below average regarding agreed allowances (Medical allowance, µ=2.2965 and commuter allowance, µ=1.5874. Therefore, the best predictor of primary school teachers’ job satisfaction in Kenya was medical allowance compared to commuter allowances. The two legal officers confirmed the same position in their qualitative submissions. However, they disagreed on the involvement of the SRC in the collective bargaining process between the employer and the employee. The study recommends that CBA on medical and commuter allowances be fully implemented for enhancement of teachers’ job satisfaction. A recommendation was made that another study be conducted among secondary school teachers to determine whether significant differences exist between primary and secondary school teachers on the variables under investigation.