Govt Goes After Civil Servants' Earnings, Restoration Of US$540 Salaries Now A Distant Dream
The National Social Security Authority (NSSA) has reportedly started making deductions from the foreign currency component of civil servants’ salaries despite government employees already facing severe financial strain due to low wages.
Currently, civil servants, such as teachers are taking home net salaries of about US$270 down from US$320 following the move by the government to deduct pension contributions from their USD salaries.
A nurse who spoke to NewZimbabwe.com on condition of anonymity said they suspect that NSSA has already started the deductions this June. Said the nurse:
I haven’t seen my payslip yet but I was shocked to note that my usual salary was US$30 less when I visited the bank last Friday.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou confirmed that the deductions will be backdated to January 2024. He said:
Yes, NSSA will be deducting the US$ salaries backdated to January 2024. This is unfortunate and ill-conceived. The deductions are unlawful and a product of one-armed banditry nature of unilateralism from the government.
They are not a product of engagement with unions and therefore palpably unjust and a monument of Zimbabwean justice.
As PTUZ, we call for the respect of tenets of fair labour practice and disputation and reject impositions by the employer.
Civil servants have criticised the government for making more deducting on their paltry earnings instead of restoring their salaries to the pre-October 2018 level of US$540.
PTUZ Secretary General Raymond Manjongwe, on June 5, 2024, wrote a letter to the Public Service Commission protesting the deductions. He said:
We also want to reiterate that the US$ NSSA deductions are a clear fraud of the highest order. How can NSSA be allowed to unilaterally deduct civil servants’ salaries yet the same government is ignoring calls for reasonable US$ salary adjustments?
NSSA has a long history of shortchanging pensioners amid allegations of corruption and poor management at the Authority.
More: Pindula News
