GOVERNMENT is today expected to make an announcement
pertaining to civil servants’ conditions of service following engagements by
workers’ representatives with President Mnangagwa recently.
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Dr Sekai
Nzenza, together with Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor
Mthuli Ncube are expected to make a
statement.
This is in tandem with Government’s commitment to engage
civil servants over their concerns, despite constrained resources. Already,
Government has offered a 40 percent cushioning intervention in the immediate
term.
The Herald understands that the cushioning intervention
will continue for the next five months as a “more modest amount” while other
interventions are being considered.
The approach is consistent with Government’s desire to
support the livelihoods of civil servants, with initiatives that go beyond
monetary interventions, which may not always be a solution to the challenges
faced by workers in an environment where manufacturers, wholesalers and
retailers take advantage of any monetary incentives to push up prices for basic
goods and services.
Government says it has noted with concern the tendency by
businesspeople to increase prices after “any injection of money on the
marketplace”, resulting in the adoption of the philosophy of “addressing the
pain points for civil servants”.
Some of the pain points include the high cost of transport,
to which Government has made significant initiatives to cushion civil servants
who commute to and from work, by heavily subsidising the cost of transport
through the provision of public service buses at a low cost.
Civil servants pay 70c per trip when going to work, against
the up to $3 that private players charge for the same trip.
More Zupco buses will be deployed across the country after
they were delivered recently to address transport challenges faced not only by
civil servants, but the rest of the population.
As part of that, Government has launched several measures
while other interventions are being crafted to address civil servants’
concerns.
Some of the measures include the engagements with the
Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS), which most civil servants
subscribe to, which has seen the medical aid society coming through with a
concession where in the case of some vital drugs, it would reduce significantly
the required top-ups for civil servants.
Government has also announced a housing scheme and a number
of civil servants have applied.
Meanwhile, Blessings Chidakwa and Nyasha Mupungu report
that civil servants yesterday handed in a petition to Government seeking an
increase in their earnings whose value has been affected by inflation.
This is despite a 40 percent salary adjustment from this
month — a second within three months — following the $400 million cost of
living adjustment package made in April.
The petition was handed over to the Ministry of Finance and
Economic Development.
The Civil Service Apex Council and Health Apex Council had
both handed the same petition to the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and
Social Welfare.
Apex Council president Mrs Cecilia Alexander told
journalists yesterday that their earnings have lost value particularly since
October last year.
“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.
“In arriving at the figure for a cost of living adjustment,
the interbank rate must apply, benchmarked against pre-October 2018 average
US$475 salary for the lowest paid civil servant. This will therefore mean the
lowest paid civil service worker should earn $4 750 to restore value of their
earnings,” she said. Herald
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