NEGOTIATIONS between civil servants and government ended
prematurely yesterday with representatives of the workers storming out of talks
in protest after being told that there would be no new offer on the table.
The government is already dealing with a strike by doctors
that has paralysed operations at public hospitals while rural teachers were on
Sunday planning a march from Mutare to Harare to demand better pay and working
conditions.
Zimbabwe is short of US dollars, the currency it adopted in
2009 after hyperinflation rendered its Zimdollar valueless, causing regular
price hikes and shortages of basic goods, medicines and fuel.
Its workers, estimated at 500 000, were demanding an
increase in salaries after prices rose five-fold and inflation shot up from
3.52% in January this year to 5.39% in September and 20.85% in October.
At a meeting held last month, government undertook to
address the demands of its workers.
A meeting of the joint negotiating council which comprises
nine representatives from the government and nine from the Apex Council —
representing the unions of government workers — the State said the status quo
would remain.
On Wednesday, the government had conveyed a similar message
to the striking doctors, although the Minister of Health and Child Care,
Obadiah Moyo and officials from the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association —
which represents more than 1 000 members — were scheduled to meet again on
Tuesday next week.
“Government had nothing to say, it had nothing to offer,”
Apex Council secretary David Dzatsunga told NewsDay.
“In fact, they brought nothing to the table and we,
therefore, decided to abort the meeting. They just told us they could call us
when they have anything substantial. We walked out after about two hours, at
that point we just concluded it was just pointless to continue with the
meeting.”
The workers were not yet contemplating going on strike, but
they were finding it difficult to keep reporting for work as their earnings
have been eroded, he added.
“We said to government our members can no longer afford to
go to work and because of the inflation and the rather punitive 2% tax (on
electronic transactions), we said we can no longer afford to come to work but
government says they cannot offer anything new and we really felt they are not
taking this matter seriously,” Dzasunga said.
Government appears ready to dish out some tough love to its
workers by cleaning up the civil service. Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said in
the budget statement that from January 1, civil servants will be vetted through
a biometric system, and will have to produce letters of employment,
qualifications and identification to “ensure that every person being paid by
government for services rendered is properly accounted for”.
The move will eliminate ‘ghost workers’ from its payroll.
The opposition often use a 2010 EY audit report, which was never made public,
to claim that the State has over 70 000 ghost workers on its payroll.
A 2015 civil service report put the figure at 3 307 while
Auditor-General Mildred Chiri, in her report of the same year found 3 500 ghost
workers drawing $21 million in salaries.
The government is also dismissing nearly 6 000 youth
officers by year-end while the salaries of the President, ministers and senior
civil servants and parastatal bosses will be cut by 5%.
Workers say the salary cut smacks of symbolism and that
they continue to bear the burden of higher taxes and a bloated administrative
system.
“We don’t have to call for a strike when it is clear that
people can no longer afford to go to work, they cannot reproduce themselves.
The transport costs have gone up and some services are paid for in US dollars,
so how do we manage? We have told government to be sensitive to our plight,”
Dzatsunga said. Newsday
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