Latest Govt Salary "Offer" Too Little - Teachers
Unions representing teachers have dismissed the reported latest salary offer by the Government as too little to meet members’ basic needs.
Last weekend Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Paul Mavima said the Government will soon table a new salary offer for civil servants at the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC).
Reports claim that the Government plans to increase civil servants’ earnings to a minimum of US$400 when allowances are factored in.
The Government reportedly arrived at the figure without consulting civil servants’ representatives.
Speaking in separate interviews with NewsDay, unions representing teachers bemoaned their employer’s “unilateralism.”
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Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe leader Obert Masaraure said:
A salary increment should be tabled at a collective bargaining platform, where the workers and employer haggle around and agree on a bargaining agreement. That agreement should be the one published.
The employer should meet all union representatives to discuss conditions of service.
The minister is also usurping the powers of the Public Service Commission. Section 203(1) of the national Constitution mandates the Public Service Commission (PSC) to fix conditions of service for civil servants, not the minister.
Such conditions should be fixed in line with section 65(5) which provides for the right to collective bargaining.
We also reject any increment which doesn’t match the basket of needs for teachers. We have done the calculations and come up with a minimum of US$1 260.
Educators Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Tapedza Zhou said:
The salary increment was long overdue, hence should have been done yesterday.
As a union, we don’t believe in NJNC whose mandate has long ceased to exist.
We actually believe that US$540 is not negotiable, since it was our pre-October 2018 earnings, and what we could negotiate is additional income above that.
Meanwhile, speaking to ZimLive on Thursday, Mavima dismissed the reports claiming that the Government has already prepared a new salary package for civil servants.
In April, the Government unilaterally awarded civil servants an additional US$50 in allowances and a 100% Zimbabwe dollar salary increment which has since been rendered meaningless by galloping inflation.
Civil servants earn US$250 in allowances and a regular wage of ZW$100,000, which is just US$10 if converted using prevailing exchange rates.
More: Pindula News
