The National Health and Allied Workers Union of Zimbabwe (NHAWUZ) has expressed support for teachers who have not been reporting for duty since schools reopened last Monday citing incapacitation.
The Government responded by effecting a blanket three-month suspension without pay on all the absentee teachers.
In a statement on Tuesday, NHAWUZ criticised the unilateral action by the Government, arguing that it has no place “in a well-developed democracy”. NHAWUZ said:
We support Social dialogue and collective bargaining through trade unionism and we want to see constructive relationships between the government of Zimbabwe and teachers.
This kind of relationship has proved its high value in many countries, both in times of economic growth and during a crisis.
In spite of attempts to demonize Zimbabwe’s public sector (through the Public Service debate, for instance), the problem of the irresponsibility of the banking sector, the unfairness of those paying for the reckless, corrupt and greediness of a few political elites is very much difficult to align with neoliberal conventions.
This logic of injustice and unfairness has to reawaken politics and galvanize actions that governments dismiss at their own peril.
On Wednesday, the Zimbabwe Public Service Commission (PSC) gave all teachers, deputy heads and heads of schools until Tuesday 22 February 2022 to report for duty.
The PSC said that teachers who have either not reported for duty or are reporting for duty but not teaching will be deemed to have resigned if they ignore the 22nd of February deadline.