Health professionals have down tools today to express their anger over the continuous rise in the cost of living and the continuous loss of salary value due to the ongoing inflationary pressures affecting the country’s economy.
Salary talks between government and its restive workers ended in a deadlock on Friday, with the lowest government employer refusing an offer of $36 000 from $18 000 with effect from next month.
Meanwhile, nurses and junior doctors from Government hospitals today held protests to show their displeasure at the low wages that they are receiving.
Public Service Commission secretary Ambassador Jonathan Wutawunashe last Friday told the media that the government was holding talks with the civil servants with a view to reaching a common understanding.
“I don’t know the timing of the strike, because right now, we have a team of the government in talks with the civil servants,” he said.
But in a statement yesterday, the Federation of Zimbabwe Educators Union (FOZEU) said the government is not serious about the welfare of civil servants.
The teachers union organization added that educators will not report for work from June 20 to 24 to give the government time to address their grievances.
“It is clear from the outcome of the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC ) held on 17 June 2022 that the government is not serious about the welfare of civil servants. We can not continue to be embarrassed in our community as a result of the poverty that the government believes should remain part of our working lives.
“We demand that within the week in which our members will not be reporting for work government should take the time to address our grievances with the serious they deserve so that the term can proceed in peace,” reads the statement.
Teachers and health workers snubbed a 100% salary hike offered by government, insisting the increment was not enough for them to cope with the cost of living.
