The Government on Friday failed to engage civil servants for the much-awaited salary talks under the auspices of the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC).
On Friday last week, Government representatives and members of the Zimbabwe Confederation of Public Sector Unions (ZCPSTU), formerly Apex Council, met under the NJNC but the meeting ended in a deadlock.
ZCPSTU rejected a 100% salary increase that had been tabled by the Government, insisting on United States dollar-indexed earnings.
The two parties agreed to meet again this week for further negotiations, but ZCPSTU said the Government snubbed the meeting.
ZCPSTU secretary-general David Dzatsunga confirmed the development to NewsDay on Friday. He said:
We were supposed to have the NJNC meeting this week, most probably today (yesterday) but government did not come through.
We are disturbed by the lack of urgency on the part of government given the situation on the ground, so that is as it stands and we are in the process of engaging our members to say, ‘where do we go from here because the employer has demonstrated a certain level of rather an apathy towards our situation?’
It is now clear that the employer is not in a hurry to address our issues, but we are hungry, we are impatient and we are restless.
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Paul Mavima last week said the Government will still double civil servants’ salaries with effect from 1 July even if the two parties fail to reach an agreement.