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One of EI’s national affiliates, the Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) teachers has rejected a pay rise proposed by the Education Ministry in its budgetary proposal for the financial year 2012-13, as “inhuman and undermining teachers’ dignity.”The 15% salary increase promised to teachers is insignificant in the context of a 30% inflation rate and will not improve their standards of living.

UNATU General Secretary and EI Executive Board member, Teopista Birungi, also deplored that the Government deviated from the ‘fair’ salary increase earlier agreed upon with the trade union.

“What is 15% salary increment in a 30% inflation situation? Is it realistic?” she asked. “We maintain our demand for sh500,000 for the lowest paid teacher and negotiate for the proportionate increment for the rest of the other teacher categories.”

An insufficient salary raise

According to the new governmental budget proposal, the least paid primary teacher would earn 301,000 Ugandan shilling (sh) after taxes, up from sh267,300, while a grade 4 head teacher would earn sh349,208 from shs326,973 after taxes.

Birungi and UNATU President, Margaret Rwabushaija, said it was degrading for the government to increase salary by a mere sh30,000, disregarding the current exorbitant cost of living.

Citing the reduced percentage of the national budget for education from 17% in 2007/2008 to 14% in 2011/2012, the education unionists bitterly noted that public education is no longer a priority in government public service expenditure. They warned that the small pay rise may harm the teachers’ morale and condemn Ugandan children “to a deliberate academic catastrophe because they will not have qualified teachers.”

MPs back up education unions

Members of Parliament on the social services committee backed up trade union demands, dismissing as “negligible” the planned salary raise ranging between 6% and 15%—depending on the salary scale.

They insisted that the Government keeps its promise to give teachers a 30-percent salary increase. In response to a nationwide teachers' strike in July 2011, the Ugandan Government committed itself to giving teachers a 30% salary increase to match the escalating inflationary pressures.

However, during a hearing with MPs over the education budget framework for the next financial year, Education and Sports Minister, Kamanda Bataringaya, told MPs that the Government is financially constrained to go back on its promise to teachers.

Bataringaya said government is not reneging on its promise, but is trying to implement it in a “phased manner.” “The salary increment in the next financial year will be 15%, then 20% in the financial year 2013/14 and 15% in the financial year 2014/15,” the minister explained.

“We should not pass the education ministry budget until teachers are given a salary increment,” MP Jacqueline Amongin warned. This budget if brought to the House in this current form should be rejected because teachers of this country deserve better.”

Need for stronger social dialogue

UNATU leaders Birungi and Rwabushaija further insisted that teachers’ pay increase should not just be offered, but collectively negotiated between the Government and the union.

Addressing journalists at the Teachers’ House in Kampala, Birungi demanded that education minister Jessica Alupo explains the 15% increase to the public.

She said not addressing teachers’ grievances was detrimental to the quality of Uganda’s education and condemned wealthy Government officials who sent their children to private schools.

Birungi applauded the Government for acknowledging the various trade unions in the country through agreements signed last October. But she expressed her disappointment about the fact that the benefits of the agreements were being undermined by the Government’s exclusion of teachers from the negotiation process.

EI is in full solidarity with its Ugandan affiliate, and urges national authorities to respect education unionists’ rights to collective bargaining and social dialogue, and to guarantee decent wages for national educators.