Government workers rejected new salaries tabled by the government at the salary meeting between the employer and workers’ representatives held on 12 March 2021 in the capital. This was revealed by the ZCPSTU in a statement released after the meeting in which the pressure group was seeking a new mandate from its members. The meeting was scheduled after workers had threatened to embark on industrial action. We present the pressure group’s statement below.
Outcome of the NJNC meeting held on 12 March 2021
Fellow comrades, as we are all aware that we had threatened to pull out of the meeting due to the intimidatory presser which was released by the Public Service Commission on the eve of today’s meeting, after some engagements, a way forward was mapped and the meeting took place.
There is nothing to bring back home to you our constituency. The Government’s offer does not even whisper to our demands which we have been tabling since we started negotiations post the dollarized era of October 2018. In today’s meeting, the Government tabled a derisory offer of 25% with effect from 01 April 2021 against the 151% offer accorded to other sectors.
The offer by Grade, therefore, translates to:
- B1 (Old earning 14652) – (New earning 16752)
- C1 (Old earning 15378) – (New earning 17659)
- D1 (Old earning 19101) – (New earning 22314)
- E3 (Old earning 21847) – (New earning 25746)
- E5 (Old earning 28168) – (New earning 33647)
After the presentation colleagues, the offer was totally rejected. The council had an argument based on adherence to the November 2020 agreement which speaks to the crafting of the roadmap to restoration of October 2018 salaries. It therefore denotes that any offer to be tabled should be a result of the roadmap that is when are we to reach our target of 2018 October salaries.
To this end comrades, the meeting ended with an impasse. We therefore stand guided by you on how best to treat this scenario.