Negotiations for salary increment between the government and civil servants’ unions yesterday ended in a deadlock after the employer offered a “paltry increment”. Feluna Nleya
Civil servants’ unions representatives asked the government to go back to the drawing board and review the offer.
Another meeting has been set for tomorrow.
Apex Council secretary Manuel Nyawo said the unions were disappointed that the government had “close to nothing” to offer them.
“We are coming from the meeting and I must say we were very disappointed. We had high expectations since they took long to give us an increment, and we thought they had something, but all they had was an offer close to nothing,” Nyawo said.
“We immediately rejected their offer of a paltry increment which is close to nothing considering that we have gone close to two years without a sound increment. “Therefore, we put the government to task to revisit the offer and come back on Friday with a better and acceptable offer than what they had today.”
Nyawo said the government had pegged the poverty datum line (PDL) at $500, while they demanded it be pegged at $540.
Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta) chief executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu said: “We did not agree on anything today because right from the beginning, we were in disagreement when they said their PDL was $500.
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“The issue is that we failed to agree on the fundamental of the salary, as they want to anchor the PDL on a low scale of $500 against ours at $540. So, we decided that they revisit the offer and we continue our meeting on Friday.”
The ruling Zanu PF government is under pressure to review the salaries of civil servants after President Robert Mugabe promised to increase them before and after the July 31 polls.
Meanwhile, there were conflicting reports on the amounts involved with Apex Council chairperson Richard Gundani saying government had offered an increment of $79 for the least paid civil servant.
This would have seen the lowest paid civil servant getting a basic salary of $375 which falls far below the PDL. The government, however, did not disclose the figures it had tabled.
