Govt, civil servants salary deal commendable
THE unhealthy economy presenting difficulties to all. Companies and other employers are struggling to keep afloat amid dwindling revenues and high operating costs. These and more factors are curtailing employers’ ability to meet their various obligations, including paying their employees viable salaries. The Government and its employees are caught up in this dilemma as well.
Workers in the private sector have been engaging their employers for improved salaries and working conditions in recent months. As a result, a number of agreements have been sealed. For example, those in the mining industry were recently awarded an 80 percent salary increment following collective bargaining negotiations. In the agriculture industry employees were awarded a 15 percent salary increase to cushion them from current economic hardships. Their counterparts in the tourism industry got a 55 percent cost of living adjustment (Cola). Similar agreements have been reached outside the lobbying of unions.
It is within this context that the Government has also been locked in collective bargaining negotiations with its workers under the Joint Negotiating Council (NJC) which yielded an agreement on Wednesday. The accord takes into cognisance the challenges being faced by members of the public service due to the is rising cost of living while considering the state of the economy as well.
They signed a deal under which employees will share $400million between April and December. This will translate into a salary increment of $129 across the board and the lowest-paid worker in Grade B1 will from next month be earning $570, up from $441.
A Public Service Commission (PSC) statement said:
“The parties took note of the challenges being faced by members of the Public Service and agreed to implement a Cola of $400 million to be effected across the board from April 1 to December 31, 2019. In addition to the Cola, the parties also agreed to continue their engagement in order to address the following; (i) to employ additional Public Service buses to augment the current fleet, (ii) to implement Statutory Instrument 52 of 2019 that exempts the Public Service from paying vehicle import duty within the set monetary thresholds, (iii) to undertake the agreed study tours to facilitate the establishment of Public Service Collective Bargaining Council by June 2019 and (iv) for Government to provide appropriate medical services to civil servants.”
It is important that the negotiations ended in a deal. In our view, this is a winwin agreement given the difficult economic context. The Government recognises that its workers’ standards of living have been compromised by the adverse economic conditions and wants to improve their salaries but lacks the fiscal space to be able to do so. On the other hand, workers have been agitating for a better deal. At some point they held out for a $3 000 per month salary for the least paid worker as negotiations dragged on. In the end, both sides struck an agreement that leaves them satisfied.
The Cola, taken together with the nonmonetary incentives that the Government is providing its workers, will go a long way in improving their standard of living. Just two weeks ago, the employer agreed to waive import duty on vehicle imports by its employees who have served for 10 years and longer. Before this, the Government had rolled out the $60 million civil servants housing scheme. There have been many more sectorspecific incentives that the Government has agreed to provide.
Civil servants have been assured that the Government is open for more negotiations which could result in a far much better deal for them. This should give them hope that while the monetary agreement clinched this week may not be as attractive as they expected, it is possible that their hopes can be met in the not so distant future. The happy conclusion of the latest round of public sector wage negotiations should assure us all of labour stability after threats for industrial action that have been issued by workers in recent months. Strikes are counterproductive; they are disruptive especially for an economy such as ours which is desperately seeking to get back to its feet after years of instability and stagnation.
That employer representatives signed the Wednesday deal is an assurance that the $400 million package will not derail the austerity measures that are being championed by the Government. We find this noteworthy because, yes, short term comforts are important and must be addressed but we must all understand that the austerity measures must not be compromised as they are designed to engender longer term and broader economic benefits. BULAWAYO, Tuesday, March 22, 1994 — A Bulawayo man who threw a petrol bomb into the bedroom of his girlfriend because she had refused him access to their child, was yesterday convicted on attempted murder by a city magistrate.
Mduduzi Ncube (38), who pleaded guilty to the charge, was remanded in custody to today for sentence by Mr Simukai Nyawo sitting at the Western Commonage Courts.
Facts were that last Friday, Ncube made his petrol bomb which he took to his girlfriend’s home in Lobengula West. Ncube had earlier quarrelled with her over her denying him access to their two-month-old baby.
He threw the bomb into the bedroom where she was sleeping with the baby. The bomb exploded, setting the room alight but the woman and the child escaped unhurt.
In mitigation Ncube said he was angry with his girlfriend because she had denied him the right to see their child.
Meanwhile, judgment in the case of a former food and beverages manager at the Bulawayo Holiday Inn who is facing charges of theft by conversion involving $1 500, will be passed on March 29.
Danford Nyamhenga Satade (42) has pleaded not guilty to the charge before Bulawayo magistrate Mrs Evangelista Kabasa. He is out of custody.