By Kudakwashe Vhenge
Government workers have rejected the announced salary increment arguing that it’s below the expected margin of remuneration they were earning before the country’s currency reform in 2019.
In a bid to end public sector workers’ discontent, government yesterday announced that all civil servants salaries will be reviewed upwards by 50 percent including pensions.
All civil servants will receive a non-taxable flat US$75 “COVID-19” allowance while pensioners get US$30 per mouth.
Earlier Wednesday morning, nurses at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals staged an impromptu demonstration over poor working conditions and low remuneration in front of luxurious vehicles owned by their executives parked at the health service board’s car park.
Speaking to Bustop TV, Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) president Enock Dongo dismissed the government’s salary increment together with its COVID-19 allowance arguing that they had earlier requested for a COVID-19 risk allowance of up to US$1 000.
“’Officially we haven’t received that information and normally when the government have an offer they come to the table and we discuss about it and the government did none of that. However the workers had earlier made a request for the government to pay them an amount of US$ 1 000 per month as COVID 19 risk allowance and on the salary the workers were demanding the wages they were earning before the enactment of the Statutory Instrument which changed the rate from 1 as to 1”, said Dongo.
In June of 2019 Minister of Finance and Economic Development Professor Mthuli Ncube introduced Statutory Instrument (SI) 142 scraping the multi-currency system which had far-reaching effects on the salaries of government employees.
Prior to Statutory Instrument (SI) 142 of 2019, most government workers were earning a salary between US$ 700- US$1100. After the introduction of (SI) 142 the same workers are today earning a paltry salary ranging between US$35-US$70 if their RTGS$ is converted to US$ on the parallel market.
Speaking on the same development, Amalgamated Rural Teachers Association of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) President, Obert Masaraure reiterated the notion that government‘s offer is below expectation as it does not offer basic amenities for a worker. He also demanded salaries they were earning before the introduction of (SI) 142.
“The government’s offer is weigh below the expectations of the teachers. The amount they are offering doesn’t cater for the basics needs of an ordinary civil servant. We still demand the same salaries we were earning before Mthuli’s currency reform agenda which robbed us of our salaries. We used to earn around US$520 and we are now earning less than US$30.
“We understand the drama and names they are trying to throw around for example “Covid allowance”. We don’t need all those names, we just need our salaries, as we have never really asked for this particular allowance All we want is a real salary which is US$520 per month,” said Masaraure.
Government has since advised all civil servants and pensioners to immediately open USD denominated Nostro Bank Accounts with their banks in order to smoothen the payment process.
