CIVIL servants have demanded payment of their salaries in
United States dollars and have threatened to activate a pending notice for a
potentially crippling strike, NewsDay has been informed.
The workers met their employer yesterday, where they made
the demand, but no resolution was made to allow government to make
consultations.
Secretary for the Apex Council, the umbrella body for civil
service labour unions, David Dzatsunga, confirmed government workers had
forwarded their demands to the employer.
Dzatsunga, however, refused to disclose details of their
demands, adding no agreement had been reached after marathon meetings for the
past three days.
“We tabled our demands to our employer. Government will
consult and bring back an answer. So far, nothing has been resolved,” he said.
“I cannot tell you what we have demanded.”
But sources revealed that the workers said they no longer
wanted inflationary adjustments, but to have their salaries paid in US$.
No decision was made on when government would report back
to the workers.
The source, however, said the workers have threatened to
activate a pending notice for a job action if government fails to meet their
demands.
Tension has been rising between government and its workers
over salaries as the RTGS$ continues to lose value against the US$ since
President Emmerson Mnangagwa took over from his predecessor, Robert Mugabe in
November 2017.
Civil servants complain that their salaries have been
eroded eightfold due to the fall of the local currency at a time prices of most
goods are pegged using the US$ as the reference point.
But Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe president
Takavafira Zhou, whose organisation has pulled out of the Apex Council,
described the move as mere “romance with government” by an illegal body.
He charged that the Apex Council was made up of people who
were being used by government to stifle efforts by civil servants.
“Their demands mean nothing. It’s a way of seeking
relevance because they know the tension within government workers. They do this
and when government workers want to strike, they pull out. It’s a decision made
a long time ago,” Zhou said. Newsday
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