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Murerwa salary freeze angers civil servants
The Standard (Zimbabwe)
August 21, 2005

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/read.php?st_id=3095

FINANCE minister, Herbert Murerwa, last week ruled out a salary increment for civil servants, fuelling widespread disgruntlement and anger among thousands of poorly paid government workers.

Presenting a supplementary budget on Tuesday, the minister deferred the public service salary reviews to the 2006 budget on the basis that this would put additional pressure on the fiscus.

But civil servants who are bearing the brunt of a record inflation rise slammed the government saying it was insensitive to their plight and was forcing them to engage in corruption in order to survive.

"People (civil servants) are not happy and some are even contemplating a crippling job action. We have not heard anything from the people who are supposed to be representing us and life has become very unbearable," said one government officer.

The majority of the civil servants earn salaries below the poverty datum line, currently $5.4m. The lowest paid workers earn $1.4m while teachers and other officials in various government departments earn about $3.5m. After deductions, many civil servants like clerks go home with less than a million dollars.

"I think the government is not serious about us. How do they expect one to live on a salary of just $1m -- it's very unfair," said one civil servant working in Harare.

The Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary general Raymond Majongwe said the announcement that government would not award an increment to civil servants was a clear example of it's insensitivity towards the welfare of the workers.

"Most civil servants, mostly teachers, have managed to get this far by borrowing to make ends meet. There is no reason why they should continue to bury themselves in debt," Majongwe said.

A basic monthly income and expenditure account for a teacher prepared by the PTUZ shows a total monthly expenditure of $7.6m leaving a shortfall of $5.6m for an average teacher who nets a paltry $2m.

Public Service Association acting president Maxwell Kaitano last week refused to say how the negotiations for salary reviews were going.

"We just want to know what the proposed allowances would get us to but we are in the middle of negotiations for the salary reviews since June and our members would always guide us on the best way forward," Kaitano said.

Murerwa proposed $440bn for civil servant transport allowances but many workers fear this amount would only benefit those officials who receive transport and subsistence allowances when on field missions.

PTUZ is demanding a 150 percent cost of living adjustment, a 100 percent increase in transport allowance and an additional 200 percent for housing.

The government had last year allocated $11.49 trillion for the public service employment costs in the 2005 budget, with a view to improve working conditions in the civil service.

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