via ‘Civil servants salary negotiations will not yield results’ January 20, 2014 by Feluna Nleya NewsDay
SALARY negotiations between government and civil servants unions will not yield any results due to the reluctance by the employer to increase salaries to the Poverty Datum Line levels of $540, government workers said yesterday.
The Government workers said most of them were already psyched up for yet another disappointment.
In separate interviews with NewsDay, some civil servants said they wanted government to credit them with the $79 it had proposed while negotiations proceeded.
This comes as the two parties are today set to meet for a third meeting after failing to agree on the package to offer civil servants due to the divergent views.
A teacher at Prince Edward High School said he had learnt from the past that negotiations with government hardly yielded positive results.
“It’s just a formality that our representatives meet government in the name of negotiating, but to expect anything more than the $79 tabled by government is just a fallacy,” he said.
Another government employee also said: “I don’t think tomorrow’s (today) meeting will yield anything better than what they have already offered.
“We have just psyched our minds that we will be getting $79 there is nothing we can do. Although it is just too little for us to call it an increment that is what we are now expecting. We are only surviving by God’s grace. The good thing is that I do not pay any rentals because I stay at my parents’ home, but as for the other bills such as council and Zesa I ignore because I cannot afford to pay them and be able to feed my family and take children to school.”
Another civil servant said “What the $79 increase will do is it will just increase tax. We will get more money yes, but you will get into another tax bracket and more money is taken up by taxes and leave you with less.
“These negotiations will not bring out anything promising. It’s been long overdue and taking long to give us an increment so we will just move on with our lives.”
Government and the Apex council, the umbrella body of civil servants unions, met twice last week, but ended in a deadlock over the salary increment level.
COMMENTS
TEACHERS, YOU WERE TAKEN TO THE DRYCLEANERS! NI ZANU ZIMENEZI!
At least the Majongwe and co- are pocketing hft allowncs in the name of ‘ negotiation’. You who affiliate to those unions, cn’t u feel the breez? It’ high time one union is formed
You guys don’t just say there is nothing u can do, if these idiots does’nt want to pay accordingly, quit the job and find some where u get/ lead a better life. See what happened to our farmers they left and these idiots r now buying maize from our x famers
Don’t sacrifice yourselves for the sake of being a teacher, you need check oh yes I’m a teacher but what am i getting out of it, if see that there is nothing quit that teaching and try other avenues. They r some people who were managers, nurses even teachers who left the country and r now doing something different from what they use to do and earning better money. Nhasi chinamasa akuti diaspora dai matipawo mary kuvanhu vavaidzvanyirira sezvaari kukuitai. Mukasiya basa hamuna kusiya njere dzenyu kuzanu pf. Kumwe kutya kusiya basa kuchaita kuti mufe muchikwangwaya. Imbofambaiwo muone zvirikuitika mune dzimwe nyika dzenerusunguko.
Dictators do not negotiate.Apex council is just there for window dressing so that people and the international world can think that ZANU PF is a good government.There are no negotiations going on.Apex council is not repersenting workers but the governmen.They have already agreed with Goche and $79 IS THE Increement.
I said it before. Hapana chiripo apa. Guys stay at home. Don’t go to work for peanuts. They will come to their senses. Zimta is a zanu pf arm. It used to call for strikes during the Unity Government and today it is talking of giving negotiations a chance. What has changed for it to say so. No money-No work. Period.
You need to ask why the police and military got their hefty increases last year already. TALKWABWEANS.
It always amazes me how the powers that be always find money to buy fleets of expensive cars, millions of dollars on useless wasted overseas trips etc. I would like to see a profile on how the powers that be live and their property and asset portfolios. I would like to see an extensive list of every head of parastatal/quasi government and what they earn and their perks etc. Do we think the rot stopped at ZBC. There are so many snouts in the trough it is frightening. And so the civil servants that actually count get the dregs! it disgusts me.