By Raymond Majongwe: 07/1/19
CIRCULAR 1 of 2019: UPDATE ON THE WAY FORWARD
Cdes, as you are aware, today the meeting between the government and all staff associations representing civil servants, including the PTUZ and the Apex Council was held at NSSA Building. The gvt was represented by the Ministers of Primary and Secondary Education, Public Service Commission, as well as the RBZ Governor and the Perm Sec of the Ministry of Finance.
We presented our demands to the gvt, which include the payment of our salaries in USD, adjustment of our salaries to reflect the new economic realities.
We have also not minced our words on the mutilated bonus that we demand should be paid in full.
Instead of addressing our concerns, the gvt offered nothing except a new meeting in the near future in order to discuss the adjustment. The govt’s tired story that it cannot pay in USD, and that it is implementing austerity for posterity does nothing to assuage our most urgent concerns of incapacitation.
We have subsidised the government for too long, and this is the time to say thus far and no more.
Way forward
Together with other unions, straight after the meeting with government, we resolved to submit the statutory 14-day notice to go on collective job action. The notice will be submitted tomorrow, the 8th of January 2019
Meantime, our members will check in at work tomorrow, but from then they will be working for only two days a week.
In the event that the government does not award a realistic and time-conscious salary raise on expiry of the 14-days from tomorrow, all the 16 government workers associations/unions resolved to declare a full-blown strike.
As usual, we did not want to make any declaratory statements before the meeting for fear of making statements that we would be unable to live by.
We commend the unity exhibited by unions before and after the meeting with government. We hope our members will exhibit the same unity.
VIVA PTUZ,VIVA!
Raymond Majongwe (PTUZ Secretary General)
