Zimbabwe’s public sector workers on Tuesday night rejected
the government's latest pay offer as insufficient in the face of soaring
consumer prices, raising the likelihood of unofficial strike action on
Wednesday.
Official figures published on Monday showed annual
inflation almost doubled to 175.66% in June, piling pressure on a population
struggling with shortages and stirring memories of the economic chaos of a
decade ago.
Hope that the economy would quickly rebound under President
Emmerson Mnangagwa, who replaced the long-ruling Robert Mugabe after a November
2017 coup, has turned to frustration as the country struggles with shortages of
dollars, fuel and medicines.
Leaders of government workers' unions marched on the
ministries of finance and labour in Harare on Tuesday to present their wage
demands.
"Civil servants are not asking for a salary increment,
but rather restoration of the value of their earnings, which fell from at least
US$475 to a mere US$47 currently for the lowest paid civil servant," read
part of the workers' petition.
The government on Tuesday offered a 50% increase to July's
pay as a cushioning allowance that will then be replaced by a monthly cost-of-living
adjustment that would amount to $116,50 (US$13.20) per person per month, said
the Apex Council of unions representing government workers.
Public sector workers had wanted a wage increase of at
least $475 a month for the lowest paid.
The Apex Council "totally rejected" the offer and
declared to government that civil servants are now severely incapacitated, it
said, intimating that workers would be unable to go to work.
Leaders of the unions on Tuesday's march stopped short of
declaring a full-on strike while negotiations are continuing.
The lowest-paid government worker earns 430 Zimbabwe
dollars a month, enough to buy a vehicle tyre, and faces increasing
inflationary pressures. The government increased the price of fuel at the
weekend and is looking to raise electricity prices in the coming weeks.
Apex Council chairwoman Cecilia Alexander earlier said the
government's austerity plans had left workers mired in poverty.
"As workers, we refuse to be sacrificed ... if our
petition is not received favourably, we will bring the entire civil service out
to protest," Alexander said, addressing a group of workers outside the
building housing the Ministry of Finance.
The last union strike over a sharp rise in fuel prices in
January turned deadly after an army crackdown on protesters left more than a
dozen people dead.
Reuters
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