ZIMBABWE
The cash-strapped Zimbabwean Government is heading into yet another confrontation with its restive bureaucracy after public sector workers rejected an offer to nearly double salaries for the lowest paid employees.
Unions said the offer was not nearly enough to cushion workers against soaring prices.
The umbrella organisation for public sector unions, the Apex Council, said the Government had offered to increase the salary for the lowest paid employee to 2,033 Zimbabwe dollars* from 1,033 Zimbabwe dollars a month.
There would also be a one-off ‘cushioning allowance’.
Deputy Chair of the Apex Council, Thomas Muzondo said the offer had been “totally rejected”.
“We will be meeting to decide our next action,” Mr Muzondo said.
He said public sector workers insisted that the government revert to October 2018 salaries, when the country was still using the United States dollar as its currency and lowest paid workers received US$475 ($A688) a month.
Zimbabwe reintroduced a local currency in June last year, which sparked increases in prices of basic goods and services and inflation, which economists say reached 400 per cent in November.
Hopes that the economy would quickly recover under President Emmerson Mnangagwa have faded as the economy grapples with 18-hour daily power cuts, shortages of fuel, foreign currency and medicines in Government hospitals.
The Civil Service Commission, which employs Government workers, could not be reached for comment.
*A comparison between the Zimbabwe dollar and the Australian dollar cannot be made as international money markets have declared the Zimbabwe dollar is worthless.
Harare, 12 January 2020
