LABOUR unions representing civil servants were yesterday divided over the 40% pay offer by government following a prolonged salary dispute with their employer.
Some said negotiations had failed to yield results and
preferred to declare a deadlock and refer the matter for arbitration, while
others said talks must be given a chance.
The divisions are set to further cripple the education
sector which is currently mired in chaos with most schools operated without
teachers after their unions stuck to their US$520 salary demand during the last
round of negotiations last week.
This also comes at a time government, in a desperate
attempt to get teachers back to work last Friday offered a pay rise which will
see the lowest paid teacher earning over $19 975.But the educators turned it
down. The lowest paid civil servant will earn $14 528 as per latest government
offer.
Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president
Takavafira Zhou told NewsDay that the best option for teachers was to declare a
deadlock in order to push for arbitration.
Zhou said there were discrepancies between teachers and
other government workers like the uniformed forces who allegedly got better pay
than other civil servants.
“Nothing was done to discuss discrepancies between teachers
and other government workers. It is unpalatable to pay teachers $18 000 and
then pay other government workers $28 000 to $50 000,” Zhou said.
“If, therefore, the Apex Council (civil service negotiating
body) leaders hope to get some semblance of respectability from teachers, they
must push for a declaration of a deadlock so that the issue of teachers’
starvation wages is referred for arbitration. Of course, we cannot harvest
apples from a thorn tree. There may be a need for teachers across the unions’
divide to push Apex Council to pursue the deadlock and arbitration route.”
Zhou also said there was no struggle without casualties,
urging the teachers’ unions to budget for protracted legal battles.
“The current submission of names of incapacitated teachers
must never be used for punitive measures against teachers as in essence, it is
the government that incapacitated teachers.
Above all, we have taken all the necessary procedures of
communicating the plight of our members to the Public Service Commission (PSC),
line ministries, and even President Emmerson Mnangagwa as PTUZ and as a united
front.”
Zimta chief executive Sifiso Ndlovu said his organisation
was consulting its members, but castigated the government for intimidating
teachers.
“Government simply came with a position which it is forcing
us to take. This is no longer negotiation,” he said. Teachers have not been
reporting for work for the past two months pleading incapacitation.
But Apex Council spokesperson David Dzatsunga said the PTUZ
and other like-minded unions should stop mudslinging, but follow legal negotiating
channels that do not politicise the issue of workers.
“To start with, we are the bona fide negotiator at law.
PTUZ and whoever wants to negotiate, who thinks that they can negotiate better,
are free to negotiate. As unions, bad-mouthing is wrong and this is a bad idea
— calling others sellouts. For your own information, the PTUZ president (Zhou)
is the Midlands provincial spokesperson for MDC Alliance and he contested in
Mberengwa several times without success.
“We don’t want to talk about these things. When a
politician comes and talks about union issues, we don’t know whose brief he is
talking about. They must stop mudslinging. We are trying our best to
negotiate,” Dzatsunga said.
“We don’t want people who just talk. NJNC (National Joint
Negotiating Council) is not the best platform for negotiating; we don’t have
collective bargaining that gives us other rights as employees. NJNC is set to
give advantage to the government.”
PTUZ secretary-general Raymond Majongwe said government
should take into cognisance that the poverty datum line (PDL) was now pegged at
over ZW$20 000.
“We are disappointed that the government is telling us that
it can’t increase our salaries anymore. In actual fact the Consumer Council of
Zimbabwe and ZimStats have proved that the PDL is now above $20 000, yet they
are saying our salaries should be $19 000,” he said.
Majongwe said the Zanu PF government’s ambition to achieve
a middle-class economy by 2030 would never come to fruition if workers in the
country remained incapacitated.
“For the record, teachers are not on strike. All we are
saying is pay us a living wage, we are not regime change agents, we are
rendering a service to the nation,” he said.
Majongwe accused the Apex Council of selling out the
struggle and siding with the government instead of workers. Newsday
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