Government is set to meet the Apex Council for crunch talks over wages review tomorrow morning following immense pressure- including threats of job action by the workers representative body, 263Chat has learnt.
The meeting which was meant to take place early January this year as per the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC) resolution of December 2020 had failed to materialise due to government delays.
However, it took some arm-twisting through an issuance of a written ultimatum for a job action this Tuesday by the Apex Council to get government attention.
However, in an interview with 263Chat, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Simon Masanga confirmed the meeting this Friday.
“We have communicated with them and we are sure that we are going to hold a meeting on Friday 10 o’clock to discuss those issues,” he said, while expressing surprise to the contents of the letter.
“Yes and we are suprised to have received such a letter. Because we were in constant touch with Apex and we were finalizing government position. There was no way we were going to rush to convene a meeting before we were ready to give feedback to the workers on the issues that they had raised. We are a buearaucracy , in government you need to consult widely but i thought that they understood us when we were giving them that feedback that we need a little bit more time but unfortunately they were not patient, but its ok,” said Masanga.
With the meeting granted, top of the agenda from the workers will be the Cost of living adjustment (COLA) which has been preferentially rewarded to some sectors of the public service, notably the uniformed services while leaving out the rest.
Also central will be the salary adjustments to all which the workers are pushing to meet the pre-October levels of USD 500.
“We have made several attempts to engage the government telephonically, physical visits and even through letters to no avail and yes we do appreciate the employer s initiative to pay a COLA to some sectors of the service but we are now disgruntled by the discriminatory exclusion of the other sectors,” said Apex Council secretary general, Gibson Mushangu.
However, while the government has agrees to an upward salary adjustment, it says it can not concede to the 2018 salaries workers are pushing for given the current state of its purse but will however gradually increase the wage until the economic environment permits for such a wage bill.
“We are very sensitive to the issues of workers and its our wish that one day we meet the demands they are raising. Remember are working on a work plan with them, that when can we arrive at the wages they want, it cant happen in one day. Its a long process, it has to do with economic recovery,” said Masanga.
