The government yesterday failed to restrain the Apex Council salary demonstration as workers felt that the government’s offer was too insignificant.
The government had begged workers’ representatives to put the demo on halt as the employer was working on ways to cushion workers from the inflationary economy. Labour Minister, Dr Sekai Nzenza had said:
We are appealing to civil servants not to go on strike and come to the negotiating table.
We are being weighed down by the liquidity crisis we are facing as well as subsidising transport through Zupco and supporting the presidential input scheme.
The government also said that the cycle of the 2019 budget was coming to an end, therefore, mobilising resources to adjust to new realities was no longer possible.
The Apex Council, however, released a statement after meeting with authorities telling its members that “the march was proceeding as initially planned”.
Workers are demanding that their salaries be indexed in US dollars as per the 2018 agreement and be paid in local currency as per the interbank rate of the day.
More: Daily News