TEACHERS have suffered a huge blow in their push for better salaries after the High Court dismissed their application for improved working conditions.
In a joint application, the Zimbabwe Teachers Association, Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe and Educators Union of Zimbabwe had sued government over poor salaries and working conditions.
The teachers cited the Public Service Commission, which established the National
Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC), through the Public Service Act charged with the responsibility of determining salaries and working conditions.
They also cited President Emmerson Mnangagwa, ministers Mthuli Ncube (Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion), Ziyambi Ziyambi (Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs), July Moyo (Public Service and Social Welfare) and Attorney-General Virginia Mabiza as respondents.
In their application through their lawyers Matika, Gwisai and Partners, the educators argued that the NJNC violated their rights towards a collective bargaining process.
They also sought a declaratory order in terms of section 85(1) of the Constitution, arguing that the Constitution guaranteed the right to a collective bargaining process.
High Court judge Justice Lucy Mungwari, however, dismissed their application.
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“Put simply, the respondents allege that the applicants did not plead any consequential or tangible benefit they would obtain from such a declaration,” the judge ruled.
“There is no dispute between or among these parties. The contestation raised is academic. The applicants do not allege that the respondents have in any way barred them from exercising the rights conferred by the particular sections of the Constitution which they cite.
“They cannot base their motion for the declaration of constitutional invalidity of the said sections on an academic apprehension. If the court were to grant the order they seek, it will be nothing but an order in the abstract.”
Justice Mungwari said the “applicants needed to do more if they wanted this court to determine their matter”.
“They ought to have shown that they are embroiled in a wrangle with the respondents who have refused to abide by what they perceive as their constitutional rights,” she ruled.
“They did not plead a tangible benefit that they would obtain from the granting of the order that they seek. There is no background dispute against which the constitutionality and invalidity of the impugned provisions is anchored.
“The applicants’ application be and is hereby dismissed in its entirety.”
The teachers argued that they were denied the right to a collective bargaining exercise.
In 2022, civil servants abandoned the NJNC after years of fruitless meetings.
The NJNC brought together government and unions representing civil servants for negotiations on the latter’s salaries and conditions of service.
At the time, civil servants were demanding at least US$540 for the lowest paid worker, but government has not met their demand.
They now want US$1 260 as the cost of living keeps skyrocketing, with some retailers and service providers now pricing their goods exclusively in United States dollars as the new currency, the ZiG, is on a free-fall.
In July 2022, teachers’ unions under the banner Federation of Zimbabwe Educators Union pulled out of the NJNC citing fruitless disagreements and its failure to “uphold labour constitutional rights as enshrined in the national Constitution under section 65(1), which calls for collective bargaining”.
The civil servants lamented disagreements that characterised their meetings with government which ended inconclusively.
They also bemoaned government’s penchant for taking too long to implement some of the agreed conditions.
