The Apex Council will approach Government this week for an emergency meeting over civil servants’ deteriorating purchasing power following recent price hikes triggered by a sharp fall in the value of the Zimbabwe dollar.
Apex council secretary general David Dzatsunga on Sunday told State media that civil servants expect the value of their wages to be tied to the exchange rate. He said:
We should now be getting into another round of negotiations to find a way of restoring the value that has been lost. That is a lot of value actually. As we have indicated earlier, we hope that Government will be able to talk about matching the value of wages to exchange rates.
This is a demand that we have made. We are not happy about that after our last round of negotiations we agreed that it (salary hikes) should be an agreement that is premised on what happens in the market and we hope and I think we will be making overtures to Government to come to the table.
In January this year, Government increased civil servants’ salaries by between 133 and 177 per cent.
As a result, the lowest-paid worker is currently earning $2 500 per month with the highest-paid getting $4 631.