GOVERNMENT has fended off a potentially crippling
industrial action in the civil service after President Emmerson Mnangagwa assented
to a pay raise for the restive workers effective next month.
The new deal will see the least paid government worker
taking home around ZWL$1 000, from the current ZWL$600, sources told NewsDay.
Mnangagwa met civil servant leaders in the Apex Council at
State House on Friday, where the workers pleaded incapacitation, telling him
that they would be unable to report for duty because they could barely afford
basics and make ends meet.
The Zimbabwe Nurses Association (Zina), which had warned
that its members would go on strike this week, said following the meeting with Mnangagwa,
they had now shelved their planned job action.
“During the meeting, the (Zina) executive was given an
opportunity to present the grievances of the nursing profession. Of the
grievances discussed, the one which was dealt with at great length was the
issue relating to remuneration, wherein the executive reiterated that due to
incapacity, the nurses would not be attending work from
June 24 unless salaries are increased,” Zina said.
Mnangagwa, who was in the company of his Finance minister
Mthuli Ncube, acting Labour minister Monica Mutsvangwa, Health minister Obadiah
Moyo and chairperson of the Public Service Commission, Vincent Hungwe, promised
to increase civil servants’ salaries and asked for the strike action to be
shelved.
“The President and those in attendance understood the
position of the nurses and gave an undertaking that salaries were going to be
reviewed. More specifically, the undertaking was that salaries were going to be
reviewed upwards from July 1 … As a result, a request was made that nurses
withhold their intention to embark on a full-scale industrial action,” Zina
said.
Mutsvangwa confirmed the meeting, saying Mnangagwa met with
teachers, other civil servants and “listened” to their problems.
“We have a listening President and he spent the better part
of the day listening and the government is going to act. What I can say is wait
for the Minister of Finance to give an official statement on what was agreed,”
she said.
Insiders told NewsDay that civil servants would also be offered
a hardship allowance in July, although the figures are yet to be fixed.
The deal will remain in place up until government
introduces an official new currency which government sees as a panacea to the
skyrocketing inflation, which has eroded salaries to the point that the lowest
paid effectively earns US$36 per month on the current black market rate.
Government expects to have a new currency in place by the
end of March next year.
MDC treasurer-general David Coltart said salary increases
would not solve the current crisis because this would only serve to push up
prices and inflation. Newsday
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