Health workers have vowed to continue pushing for United States dollar wages saying their meagre local currency salaries are constantly eroded by inflation.
This follows government’s recent move to increase civil servants salaries by 20 percent in addition to other non-monetary benefits such as duty free importation of cars.
In an interview with 263Chat, Zimbabwe Professional Nurses Union(ZPNU) Secretary General Douglas Chikobvu said health workers will continue declaring incapacitation until their demands are met.
“We still have myopic technocrats who continue to parade ignorance towards the welfare of civil servants. 20% salary increment is a pittance considering that the salaries of most civil servants fall below the poverty datum line. Those in authority should be guided by factual information and evidence based approaches when filling in policy gaps,” said Chikobvu.
He accused government of being evasive to their genuine demand for a living wage in USD.
“Going forward as frontline workers, we call upon the government to come to table through our formal platform of engagement, Health Apex before we declare incapacitation anytime soon. We remind government that apart from the issue of salaries, they should furnish health care institution with basic tools of trade,” Chikobvu added.
This reaction comes after the government recently awarded civil servants a lucrative package that includes a 20 percent increment across the board backdated to January 1, while US$100 from the employees’ local currency component would also be paid from next month.
Government also committed to pay school fees for up to three biological children of teacher’s family.
