Civil servants vow to meet Mugabe over bonus issue

In a statement yesterday, the Apex Council secretary-general, David Dzatsunga said the civil service umbrella union would soon seek audience with President Robert Mugabe over the issue of bonuses. They also criticised Public Service minister Prisca Mupfumira for her statements that the majority of civil servants want residential stands in lieu of 2016 bonuses.

Part of the statement issued by Dzatunga reads:

Workers are already waiting for their cash bonuses. The manner in which the so-called survey was being conducted is a negation of our role as unions, making the February 27 meeting a prejudged process. The stands-for-bonuses issue is pie in the sky, as there is no formula according to which the government will be able to avail stands for every civil servant in the short run. The Apex Council would like to advise its members that our self-initiated housing scheme has no relation whatsoever to the bonus issue. In the event that the cash bonus remains in contention, the Apex Council will be left with no choice, but to seek audience with President Mugabe, who has been consistent in his defence of the workers’ rights to a bonus.

The civil servant’s representatives said that the survey by the Civil Service Commission is null and void since the minister, in her statements, already concludes that the majority of workers prefer stands in lieu of bonuses.

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