Govt workers plead for salary talks

Harare(New Ziana)-The civil servants representative body, the Apex Council on Friday called on government to urgently convene a meeting to discuss a long awaited salary increment to cushion its members against the rising cost of living.

Government has since the beginning of the year engaged its workforce in salary negotiations, and has awarded them cushion allowances while talks for a salary review were on-going.

The parties have previously failed to agree on the employees’ wage demands, including salary payment in United States Dollars, which government felt were not affordable.

In a letter seen by New Ziana addressed to the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Apex Council chairperson Cecilia Alexander said the workers still maintained their demand for salaries for civil servants to be pegged in United States Dollars but paid in local currency indexed to the interbank rate.

“As the above matter refers, Apex Council hereby requests your August office to convene an urgent NJNC meeting on or before the 9th of October 2019 to map way forward on continuous escalating cost of living.

“The council also wishes to bring to your attention that it maintains its demand of salaries payment be indexed to interbank rate basing on the salary scale of October 2018,” said Alexander.

The NJNC, which combines the workers and government, last met in July.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa is on record promising continuous improvement of the conditions service for government workers in order to cushion them against rising cost of living.

New Ziana