GOVERNMENT has started paying cost of living adjustments
(COLA) to civil servants, with health workers becoming the first group to
receive their dues yesterday.
The health workers’ COLA was agreed on after a Health
Service Bipartite Negotiating Panel (HSBNP) met on August 28, 2019.
At the meeting, it was also agreed that the COLA be paid to
members of the health service with effect from August 1, 2019.
In a statement to The Herald last night, the Ministry of
Health and Child Care said funds have since been released for payment of the
COLA, which was disbursed through normal salary payments.
“Government availed resources for the implementation of the
agreed Cost of Living Adjustment.
“The Ministry of Health and Child Care confirms that health
workers have been paid COLA through the normal salary disbursement channels
today (yesterday), the 4th of September 2019,” reads the statement.
Government and civil servants’ representatives agreed on a
cost of living adjustment pegged between 55 percent and 76 percent on a sliding
scale, which will see the least-paid worker taking home $1 023 per month.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi
Ziyambi told the National Assembly during the question and answer session
yesterday that most civil servants will start getting their increments this
week.
Minister Ziyambi is also the leader of Government business
in Parliament. The increments were awarded by Government last month as
part of efforts to address the concerns of its workers. Herald
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