(Reuters) - Zimbabwe's public sector workers demanded to be
paid U.S. dollar-indexed salaries on Wednesday to cushion them against soaring
inflation, and will decide this week whether to strike.
Public hospital doctors have been on strike for more than a
month to press President Emmerson Mnangagwa for higher pay. If more workers
take action it would raise pressure on a government widely criticised for its
handling of the economy.
Hopes that this would quickly rebound under Mnangagwa, who
took over after the late Robert Mugabe was deposed in a coup in November 2017,
have faded fast, as citizens grapple with inflation that has eroded earnings
and savings.
Zimbabweans have also been facing rolling power cuts and
shortages of U.S. dollars, medicines and fuel that have revived memories of the
2008 hyperinflation under Mugabe.
The Apex Council, which groups 14 public sector unions
representing 230,000 workers - excluding the health and security sectors - said
the government had failed to convene meetings to discuss workers' pay after
several requests from unions.
Unions want the monthly salary of the lowest paid employee
pegged at $475 (7,258 Zimbabwe dollars), which workers were earning in October
2018, before the government re-introduced the Zimbabwe dollar, ending a decade
of dollarisation in June.
The local currency has since plummeted, fuelling price
hikes and triple-digit annual inflation, but salaries have lagged.
"There is no better way than looking at what we were
earning on 1 October 2018 and that being indexed to the prevailing interbank
(exchange) rate. Anything other than that will not adequately address the needs
by civil servants," George Mushipe, Apex Council treasurer told reporters.
The lowest paid worker earns 1,020 Zimbabwe dollars a
month, barely enough to buy two bags of fertiliser.
Vincent Hungwe, chairman of the Civil Service Commission
that employs government workers, declined immediate comment.
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