Financial Gazette
Njabulo Ncube
15 January 2010
Harare — The coalition government, grappling with a tight financial squeeze, called a crisis meeting with representatives of the country’s civil servants yesterday after union leaders rejected its offer and proceeded to issue a 14-day ultimatum to press for better pay and improved working conditions.
Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, Public Service Minister, Elphas Mukonoweshuro and Education Minister, David Coltart, convened the crisis meeting with the representatives from the Public Service Association (PSA), the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) and the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) to cool the volatile situation threatening the inclusive government’s economic recovery efforts.
Details of the indaba were not immediately available at the time of going to press.
But in a rare show of unity among the unions representing the country’s civil servants, PSA, ZIMTA and PTUZ called a joint press conference yesterday where they all rejected a government offer to pay the highest public worker US$236 a month.
Previously, the three unions had engaged the government separately, rendering their lobby for improved salaries ineffective.
Yesterday, the representatives of the civil servants told journalists that their membership was “dismayed” by the government offer made during the National Joint Negotiating Council on Tuesday.
They noted that their employer was silent on housing and transport allowances, at a time when rentals, rates and transport costs were accounting for the bulk of their monthly expenditure. “The civil servants in Zimbabwe, comprising educators and the rest of the civil servants, registered their displeasure and utter dismay at the paltry offer the government put forward on January 12 at the negotiating table for the 2010 salary review,” Tendai Chikowore, the ZIMTA president, said.
“The offer is inadequate, ridiculous and out of sync with the cost of living and therefore unacceptable. Civil servants therefore warn the government that its stance is a recipe for industrial disharmony likely to frustrate economic recovery,” she added.
The least paid civil servants, among them teachers, earn US$155 per month.
The unity government is technically insolvent due to revenue constraints and has been pleading with its employees to understand its precarious situation.
Appeals to international financiers for balance of payments support have drawn blanks as potential donors have insisted on the full implementation of the power-sharing pact signed in 2008 between the country’s key political actors.
At its inception in February 2009, the government paid all civil servants an allowance of US$100 a month. The allowances were later changed to a monthly salary averaging US$155.
In terms of the government offer, salaries in certain grades would have increased by between US$7 and US$21.
The highest paid civil servant, a permanent secretary in Grade E5, would have seen his or her monthly salary increasing from US$185 to US$236 against a Poverty Datum Line estimated at about US$500.
But the civil servants are adamant that they would want the least paid government worker to earn US$630, comprising of a basic entry salary of US$460, a housing allowance of US$120 and a transport allowance of US$50.
They also want the re-introduction of a rural allowance to be pegged at 20 percent of one’s monthly salary.
“Government should be warned that civil servants may deliver half-baked services that may ultimately compromise government processes.
“Meanwhile, we are giving the leadership of this country 14 days to intervene on this issue as a matter of urgency before it blossoms into conflict,” said Chikowore.
Takavafira Zhou, the president of PTUZ, and Cecilia Alexander, the president of PSA, endorsed the statement read by Chikowore.
“It’s an insult to civil servants. The government offer is unacceptable,” said Zhou.
Alexander, whose association represents the bulk of the civil servants, concurred.
“Our members are suffering. We are failing to send our children to school and to pay rent.
“If the government does not take us seriously, we are going to take action, which it is going to regret,” said Alexander.