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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Strikes and Protests 2007/8 - Teachers and Lecturers
Teachers' strike looms
Njabulo
Ncube, The Financial Gazette (Zimbabwe)
January
25, 2007
http://www.fingaz.co.zw/story.aspx?stid=2329
TEACHERS’ unions
have served notice to begin a nationwide strike on Monday over what
they describe as paltry sums of money paid out by the government
this week as salary adjustments.
The salary adjustments
resulted in the lowest paid teacher earning about $84 000, and the
highest paid commanding $157 000, which are both below the poverty
datum line, currently pegged at $344 000 for an average family of
five.
Executives from
the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (ZIMTA), the largest representative
of primary school teachers, and the Progressive
Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), confirmed yesterday that
they had written to the Public Service Commission (PSC) two weeks
ago giving notice of an impending collective job action.
"Please
be advised that our members are not happy with the salaries your
Commission is offering in January 2007," reads part of a January
15 letter written by PTUZ secretary general Raymond Majongwe to
the PSC. "The salaries and allowances fall far short of our
expectations and are below the poverty datum line . . . yet the
Commission decides to pay teachers salaries as low as $84 284.20
and a paltry $157 503.24 for the highest paid teacher."
The teachers
are demanding a minimum basic salary of $400 000, transport allowances
of $100 000, and a housing allowance of $150 000.
The recent rise
is inflation to 1 283 percent has come against a sharp increase
in transport and grocery costs. Energy and power costs have also
soared in the new year.
PTUZ wants government
to exempt at least one teachers’ child from paying school fees,
a benefit similar to that enjoyed by war veterans, and to improve
conditions of service significantly to stem the flight of teachers
to neighbouring countries.
The union has
also called on the government to improve the conditions of service
for teachers in rural areas through the provision of housing and
facilities that meet World Health Organisation standards.
"It is
against this background that our members and other teachers are
agitating for collective job action if the following demands are
not treated as a matter of urgency within the next
14 days," Majongwe said.
The letter giving
notice to go on strike has been copied to Permanent Secretaries
in the Ministries of Education, Sports and Culture, Public Service,
Labour and Social Welfare and to the secretary generals of other
unions.
Education Minister
Aeneas Chigwedere said he had no immediate comment to make on the
matter.
If the teachers
go ahead with their threatened strike, they would join government
doctors as the second major group of civil servants to resort to
industrial action to press for better salaries and working conditions.
Doctors have been on strike for six consecutive weeks.
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