Harare, (New Ziana) – Public service employees on Wednesday gave government a seven-day ultimatum to respond to demands for an “overdue” cost of living adjustment or face potential job action.

In a letter to the employer, the Zimbabwe Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (ZCPSTU), formerly the Civil Service Apex Council, accused government of failing to respond to calls for a meeting of the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC) as agreed at their last meeting in December.

“The ZCPSTU/Apex Council will, seven (7) days from the date (of) this letter, notify the employer of an impending civil service wide job action and that such notification will be served to you in accordance with the laws of the land and in fulfilment of the desires of our members,” said ZCPSTU president, Cecilia Alexander in the letter directed to Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister, Professor Paul Mavhima.

The parties have previously agreed to work on a roadmap towards restoration of civil service wages to pre-October 2018 levels where the lowest paid employee took home around US$520.

Currently, the lowest paid civil servant is taking home around US$165.

While government has said it has no capacity to pay salaries in foreign currency, the workers have in response demanded that the pay be just indexed to the United States dollar and paid at the going exchanged rate.

Alexander said the cost of living had continued to go up and workers were incapacitated.

Calls for the job action, she said, were in response to “the distress call of civil servants for more aggressive action to make the employer hear our pleas.
New Ziana