THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) has urged government to pay civil servants, as delays in the payment would result in low morale among workers.
BY BUSINESS REPORTER
ZCTU secretary-general, Japhet Moyo said the government had crowded the fiscal space with partisan expenditure and wrong priorities, giving an example of Vice-President Phekezela Mphoko, who has spent a year in a hotel.
“The Zimbabwean government has been shifting pay dates of its workers, without consulting the affected employees. Civil servants are the nerve centre of the State and failure to adequately remunerate them puts the country at risk and ranks us with Somalia. Failed states are synonymous with the failure to pay government workers. This all boils down to poor planning by the government.” he said.
“Government is not an ordinary employer like the private sector, where companies can close down, but in government that spells disaster for our security and statehood to have unpaid workers.
“We might be fuelling corruption and no investor would come to a country where civil servants are not assured of a salary.”
Close to 90% of civil servants are paid below the poverty datum line of $500.The year 2015 saw challenges in paying civil service salaries on time and this has also resulted in delays in the payment of 2015 bonuses. The government is working towards the rationalisation of the civil service.
Last year was one of the worst years for workers which allowed employers to retrench workers on three months notices.
