No retrenchments, just deaths – Govt

GOVERNMENT has insisted that it will not retrench any of its nearly half a million workers, as moves to reduce the galloping recurrent expenditure of 90% of government revenue on salaries continue.

Source: No retrenchments, just deaths – Govt – NewsDay Zimbabwe January 12, 2017

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

Labour deputy minister Tapiwa Matangaidze told a Press briefing yesterday that the government’s wage bill would be gradually brought down through “natural attrition”, as opposed to retrenchments.

“Streamlining does not mean we will retrench, but what will happen through natural attrition is where a vacancy arises, there will be no replacement, but a transfer from one department to the other to avoid duplication of roles,” he said. Matangaidze said, while the government did not question the unsustainability of its current wage bill, retrenchments were not part of the solution.

“While it’s agreed that our salary bill is unsustainable, nobody is going to lose their jobs, we are just going to rationalise the workforce,” he said.

Multilateral financial institutions assisting the government with its proposed economic turnaround programme have urged the government to retrench and flush out ghost workers.

The government has been failing to pay its workers on time due to dwindling revenues and at one time offered residential stands, a move which rejected by civil servants.

Meanwhile, the housing project chaired by Local Govenment ministry permanent secretary, George Mlilo has reportedly received over 500 000 applications.

Under the project, which was pushed through by the Apex Council, civil servants will be allocated serviced residential stands, for which they will pay in monthly instalments.

Government is soliciting the help of financial institutions to fund the project by providing loans for civil servants, whose instalments will be paid through direct deductions from their salaries. In the past housing projects aimed at benefiting civil servants have been hijacked by corrupt senior government officials.