Civil Servants to Get Salary Increases
Zimbabwean citizens have accepted the government offer of a 133 per cent salary increment for the lowest-paid worker.
The Apex Council which represents civil servants said some of its members were incapacitated to execute their duties before the package is effected.
Apex Council is also pushing the government to pay its workers based on 2018 salaries which were pegged in United States dollars and multiplied by the prevailing interbank rate.
If this had been accepted, it would have meant that the lowest-paid worker would get more than RTGS$8 000 per month.
The meeting that resulted in this agreement was held in the resort town of Victoria Falls n the sidelines of the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC) workshop for parallel salary negotiations.
The final offer that the workers accepted will see the government paying salary increases of between 133.85 per cent and 172.46 per cent to its workers depending on the grade.
The increment will be backdated to January but the top-up on the January salaries, which have already been paid, will be paid in equal instalments until the end of April.
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While both parties had earlier agreed in principle on the increment package, there was disagreement on payment modality as workers’ representatives wanted the top-up for January to be paid forthwith while the government offered to stagger it over the three months.
A worker who was earning RTGS$1 045 will now take home RTGS$2 500 per month while those who were earning RTGS$1885 will now get RTGS$4 631.
In an interview, Alexander said the increase they accepted the pay offer despite it making only 31 per cent of that they are pushing for.
“Having taken note of the challenges being faced by our members due to rising cost of living and the state of the economy, we our wisdom we agreed have agreed to sign a provisional agreement as NJNC.
“We agreed to continue negotiating but for now we had to sign for something so that our members at least have buying power as most of them are incapacitated,” she said.
She said the salaries will be reviewed in the first quarter but said they will assess reactions of civil servants which will guide the way forward.
“Our members are really suffering and need some relief. We indicated this to Government last year and nothing has changed as no meaningful increment has been made since then. We urge members who are incapacitated to wait for payment of the increment than to saddle themselves with debt as it's not proper for a worker to subsidise the system,” added Alexander.
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