The Public Service Commission (PSC) has called on civil servants to be patient and understand that efforts are being made to improve their livelihoods and working conditions.
This was said by PSC secretary Jonathan Wutawunashe in an interview with State media in Victoria Falls where the PSC is meeting to review its five-year strategic plan.
Wutawunashe said the government is striving to balance between civil servants’ salaries and other national priorities such as COVID-19 which require fiscal intervention. He said:
Government and its workers have been on a path of continuous improvement and issues are debated within what is possible. So, whatever is possible Government will do at any given time.
Definitely, emoluments have been improving phenomenally and at the same time Government is not just saying let us improve salaries because that can have huge inflationary impacts, but it is also looking at how to expand the dollar that is in the pocket of the civil servants hence we come in and expand the bus fleet where civil servants fare structure is supportive of public workers.
It has however emerged that civil servants are increasingly becoming impatient with the lack of a breakthrough in salary negotiations with their employer.
The parties last met two months ago and the engagement ended in a deadlock after civil servants rejected a staggered 70% increment tabled by the government.
Zimbabwe Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (ZCPSTU) secretary, David Dzatsunga was recently quoted as saying:
It’s like telling us to carry water in a basket when Government says we are going to table an offer when there is no offer coming to the table.
Most of what we see is what comes out in the press but they (Government) have never really responded to our correspondence.