Civil servants & government set to try avert crippling strike

Last week the unions flatly rejected an 18 to 26 percent salary hike as paltry and gave the cash-strapped government one week to improve the offer or face crippling strike action. Tendai Chikowore who chairs the Apex Council that represents civil servants, said they were concerned about the lack of sincerity being showed by the government towards their perennial salary demands.

Under the government offer, the lowest paid civil servant would have been paid US$160, up from US$128, while the highest paid would have received US$241 per month. Union leaders however want the lowest paid worker to receive US$500, which is roughly on par with the requirements of an average family.

Our analysis is that the remuneration levels as proposed by government constitute only 30 percent of the bread basket. This is a far cry, it is not at par with the high expectations held by workers across the country, Chikowore said. According to the council the average bread basket for a family to survive on costs is around US$505.

Meanwhile SWRAs Muchemwa reported that the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe released a report on Tuesday confirming a two percent increase in the bread basket from Decembers US$500 figure. Although SWRA had received no official confirmation at the time of broadcast, the new Poverty Datum Line (PDL) could be as high as US$510, giving unions more ammunition for their cause.

Although the government says it is cash strapped and already diverting 60 percent of its revenue to salaries, the Secretary General of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe Raymond Majongwe said the government should use revenue from the sale of diamonds.

We have diamonds in this country and revenue is rising daily. Where is that money going? Majongwe queried.