The Employment and Labour Relations Court has stopped the Teachers Service Commission from hiring 70,000 teachers.
Justice Nduma Nderi gave the orders in an application filed under a certificate of urgency by the Trade Union Congress of Kenya.
The move came as The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) announced that they will be convening their National Delegates Conference on Saturday to discuss the next move.
This stay of hiring teachers comes just a day after Justice Nelson Abuodha of the Labour Relations Court directed teachers to respect the return to class court order to enable the 90 days arbitration period to kick off.
The Trade Union Congress of Kenya moved to court seeking orders to bar TSC from hiring teachers as a stop gap measure following the ongoing nationwide strike.
The teachers employer body had kicked off the exercise of recruiting 70,000 teachers on a 3 months contract to address the current paralysis of the public education as a result of the ongoing teachers strike.
TUC-Kenya opposed the recruitment claiming that by TSC engaging in the recruitment exercise against the absence of teachers is a clear indication that it is not inclined to abide by court orders made on 25th September 2015.
TUC-Kenya also claims that TSC is in violation of Section 5 of the Employment Act, 2007 saying the exercise is meant to psychologically harass and intimidate teachers with a threat to their replacement by the new teachers to be recruited.
TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia had announced the recruitment of 70,000 teachers on contract basis to be posted to public primary and secondary schools across the country.
The teachers were to be hired on a three-month contract and were thereafter considered on priority basis for employment on permanent terms when vacancies arise.
