BY VANESSA GUZHA
THE Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) yesterday said teachers were still heavily incapacitated after they were paid between $13 300 and $17 000 this month after government effected a 25% increment, which is part of the 70% staggered increase which they were offered last month.
In a statement yesterday, PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said despite that 50% of their increment is still to be effected, teachers would continue to demand the pre-October 2018 salary levels of between US$520 and US$550, or their equivalent in local currency.
“At a time when salaries of MPs and ministers have increased tremendously, (Primary and Secondary Education minister Cain) Mathema does not see the effects of the erosion of teachers’ purchasing power parity. To assume that teachers earning as little as $13 300, after the latest 25% unilateral government toxic award, can survive, pay fees for their children, and report for work daily, is to ask for too much,” Zhou said.
“We want to remind Mathema that we do not eat infinite collective begging which he calls bargaining. Government has since October 2018 failed to restore the purchasing power parity of teachers’ salaries.”
On Monday, Mathema said government would implement a no-work, no-pay policy on truant teachers, adding that their names were being recorded for onward transmission to the Public Service Commission.
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