GOKWE town council is at loggerheads with its employees
after reducing their salaries in line with recommendations of a job and salary
re-grading exercise that affected employees at all levels.
The disgruntled employees have since taken the local
authority to the Labour Court. In an interview yesterday, town secretary, Ms
Melania Mandeya said council was only implementing recommendations from a job
evaluation exercise carried out in 2017.
“We embarked on a job and salary re-grading exercise
following a job evaluation exercise. Most of the employees were just employed
and put in certain positions with required qualifications.
“Some people were earning what they don’t deserve. So we
embarked on job and salary re-grading exercise which has seen downgrading of
grades and salary adjustments which the employees are fighting,” she said.
Ms Mandeya said council has two options; to either retrench
some employees or implement the job and salary re-grading exercise.
“Faced with the current economic situation, the local
authority had an option of retrenching some of the employees. But then we say,
why not reduce their salaries so that we remain viable?
“Employees have now taken council to the Labour Court. So
this matter is in court and we await its ruling. However, council will be
forced to retrench some employees because we can’t remain afloat with the
salaries they were getting in the previous grades,” she said.
Ms Mandeya said council is faced with a number of
challenges emanating from failure by residents and companies to settle their
debts.
She said after carrying out the job evaluation exercise, a
notable achievement is that council had managed to clear the salary backlog
from 24 to 12 months.
“The local authority has about 100 employees and has been
battling to clear a salary backlog which now stands at 12 months from 24 months
as a result of carrying out the job evaluation exercise recommendations. The
employees are now getting their salary on time,” she said. Chronicle
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