TEACHERS TO SUE GOVERNMENR OVER SALARY DISPARITIES

Phillip Andama, the UNATU chairman Arua city Branch speaking on the repeated failed attempts to grab government's attention to address salary disparity concerns among teachers.

By Dramadri Federick
Arua City

Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) a labor union movement for all the teachers in Uganda has proposed seeking legal redress against government over disparities in salaries that has created divisionism in Uganda’s educationists.
 
This following series of industrial actions led by the union and emergency of other factions from the broader UNATU that has torn apart the teaching fraternity in the country.
 
On June 6, 2025, over 10,000 members of the Uganda Professional Humanities Teachers’ Union another faction of the UNATU announced an industrial action pestering government to raise salaries of Arts teachers in Secondary, Tertiary and University institutions and this is yet ongoing.
 
Phillip Andama the Chairman Uganda National Teachers Union Arua city branch says they are considering taking government to court following several promises to the teachers that have not yielded.
 
“We have rights to take government to court over these disparities that will be the next step, we want to see how far this will go. You cannot manage Humanity on science alone,”Andama explained.
 
The government’s past attempts to address teacher pay have left arts educators feeling sidelined, especially after the controversial 300 per cent salary increase for science teachers in 2022. This substantial boost in pay for science teachers sparked widespread protests from arts teachers, who felt the disparity was unfair and inequitable.
 
Mori Samuel Sidoro, the former West Nile Regional Chairman UNATU is advocating for various education stakeholders to come in the fight for teachers’ welfare.
 
“Throughout these subsequent financial years government has been promising these teachers pay increment especially for the non-science Humanity teachers and government kept postponing all of them while ignoring the agreed memo which was signed between 2018 and 2022 towards improving the welfare of the teachers. This leaves the teachers with the last option of going for industrial action looking at the fact that the situation of teachers are empathetic with the current economic situation,” Mori explained.
 
Currently, primary classroom teachers earn a minimum of Shs 499,684 per month regardless of their qualification, while secondary classroom arts teachers receive a minimum of Shs 960,288 for degree holders and Shs 745,000 for diploma holders.
 
With these salaries, many teachers are finding it increasingly difficult to manage the rising cost of living.