The country’s largest employer Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has obtained stay orders on the implementation of the ruling of the Employment and Labour Relations Court that employing qualified teachers as interns is illegal.
What the ruling meant was that the intern teachers, majority in JSS, would be converted to permanent and pensionable terms and paid the arrears for the period they have worked.
However, as things stand now, they will continue doing duty as per the internship contracts they signed earlier in the year until the commission’s appeal is heard and determined.
In the stay orders issued yesterday by Justice Byram Ongaya, the Court has certified TSC’s application as urgent, setting May 2, 2024 as the date for inter-parties hearing.
“Parties are encouraged to compromise the application as may be just pending the return date and with a view of recording a consent as appropriate,” ordered Justice Ongaya.
“Pending the inter-parties hearing or further orders by the Court, the status quo of the judgment herein on April 17, 2024 and with respect to the contracts between the applicant and persons the applicant calls “individual teacher interns” said to have been employed by the applicant pursuant to the Circular TSC/DS/RECRUIT/ADVERT/18A/VOL.II dated January 4, 2023, shall obtain, as the implementation or impact of order (a) is stayed in that respect, accordingly,” added the Judge.
TSC had moved to court yesterday to make an application to quash the judgment, decision, and decree of Justice Ongaya delivered on April 17, 2024 pending the hearing and determination of intended appeal.
In the notice of motion filed by the commission through its lawyer Allan Sitima dated April 19, 2024, TSC argues that if the judgment is implemented in full, learning in public schools which is set to resume on April 29, 2024 will be paralyzed especially in Junior Secondary School (JSS).
The commission further asserted that it has no financial resources to facilitate compliance with the judgment where it is required to convert 46,000 interns into permanent and pensionable terms since it was not appropriated by the National Assembly in the current Financial Year.
The ELRC in its judgment delivered on April 17, 2024 declared that TSC contravened the provisions of the constitution when it recruited and employed duly trained and qualified teachers as interns; and that the rights of fair labour practices and remuneration of teachers who were employed as interns were violated.
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By Education News reporter
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