Zimbabwe’s restive civil servants will meet today to chart the way forward as they seek to exert pressure on the government to increase their salaries to levels above the poverty datum line.
Their meeting comes ahead of another one with the government sometime this week to discuss review of salaries and conditions of service for civil servants after workers threatened to go on strike this month.
Civil servants representative body, Apex Council, is demanding the lowest paid civil servant should earn a salary above the poverty datum line, currently estimated at around $540.
The Apex council encompasses Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, Public Service Association, the Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Teachers’ Union.
The lowest paid civil servant earns about $250 per month following increments which were effected in July last year.
Apex council chairperson Tendai Chikowore said the exact date of their meeting with the government was yet to be announced.
“There is no development as yet on when we are supposed to meet the government. They said they had not yet finished their consultations,” said Chikowore.
“We shall hear tomorrow (today) what they would have decided and hold a meeting with representatives of other unions and then decide on the way forward.”
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Public Service minister Lucia Matibenga said: “All I know is that they had a meeting on December 16 and that there should be a follow-up meeting. So I am not aware on how far they have gone as I am out of town and I have not been briefed on the issue as yet.”
Should the two parties fail to find common ground, fears are government employees could embark on a strike action.
