Why court ordered an end to teachers’ strike

Why court ordered an end to teachers’ strike

Thursday, 02 August 2012 23:00

Tanzania Teachers Union (TTU) president Gratian Mukoba with TTU members before the Labour Division of the High Court declared the teachers’ strike illegal yesterday. PHOTO | VENANCE NESTORY By Alex Bitekeye The Citizen Reporter Dar es Salaam. Teachers just can’t win, it seems. Having staged a boycott of the classroom and chalk for four days, they suffered a major setback yesterday after the Labour Division of the High Court declared their strike illegal. And they have only themselves to blame for their predicament, according toJudge Sophia Wambura. She threw out their case because the Tanzania Teachers Union (TTU) did not stick to the law in organising and calling the countrywide strike.   The judge ordered the teachers back to work and also told them to compensate their pupils and students for the inconvenience they suffered because of the strike. Reading the verdict, Judge Wambura said the teachers would have to “pay” their charges time equivalent to the hours of learning that they lost.  Judge Wambura also declared the ongoing strike unlawful because the issue at the heart of the disagreement between the teachers and the government had not been dealt with exhaustively by the Commission for Mediation and Arbitration (CMA). Given that the case was still at the CMA, she added, the strike notice to government was not proper. “This shows that Tanzania Teachers Union refused to negotiate with government,” said the Judge. She found that the union had broken the law and, by implication, refused to continue negotiations with the government—and the CMA certificate issued in July is proof of this. Moreover, the organisers failed to issue the 48-hour notice required ahead of a strike. The notice period must also fall within working hours.   Judge Wambura said: “The 48-hour notice (by TTU) was issued and delivered (to the government) on Friday, July 27, just half an hour before the end of public working hours. That means the notice should have started on Monday…the strike should have started on Tuesday and not Monday.”  For any strike to be legal, moreover, the notice should reveal how long it would last. “But yours said that this will be indefinite strike,” she told the TTU lawyer. The ballot system that TTU used to decide on the strike was also was dismissed as not in accordance with the law because it showed that TTU members voted for a salary raise and not for the strike. “It is also apparent that the teachers were not informed on the consequences of the strike,” Justice Wambura added. According to the TTU constitution, Judge Wambura said, the council was supposed to meet after casting of the ballots and declare its stand. But these procedures were not followed. She ordered the TTU national leaders to immediately terminate the strike and disseminate a press release notifying their members to return to work immediately. “This strike was announced using press releases.  Now the court orders you to use the same means to inform your members that the strike has been halted and they should go back to work,” she ordered.  In a quick response, the TTU Secretary General, Mr Ezekiel Oluoch, told the court that they would announce their stand at a press conference at the union’s headquarters. The application was filed by the Chief Secretary, Permanent Secretary in the President’s office Public Service Management, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training together with the Attorney General. The four were represented by Principal State Attorneys Pius Mboya and Robert Busumagu. They told the court earlier that TTU did not get legal approval before organising the strike. Now they want the court to order the union to pay the costs of the case.   TTU advocate Gabriel Mnyele said he would wait for a directive from his client before taking further action. A female teacher burst into tears after the ruling, saying she did not know how she was going to compensate her pupils.