President Robert Mugabe’s administration has once again dithered on civil servant salaries.
Another strike is now in the loom.
The civil servants will know their July pay dates on Friday, Mugabe’s Public Service Minister Prisca Mupfumira said yesterday.
Mupfumira quoted by the state media said people “should not be misled by malcontents peddling falsehoods on social media”.
Speaking after meeting the Apex Council team leader Mrs Cecilia Alexander, Mupfumira warned civil servants against embarking on what she termed, “illegal industrial action”.
She said while Govt workers had a constitutional right to strike, such actions should be undertaken procedurally.
“I, together with my Deputy Minister (Tapiwa Matangaidze) and my officers, met the Apex Council team leader and her team to update them on what is happening with regards to the July salaries,” she said.
“We are working with Treasury and the dates will be availed to them on Friday. Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa was out of the country and we have appealed to have the dates improved from last time. Government promises that soon things will be back to normal after the bonus payments made us go off-rail.
“The civil servants should not be moved and must be assured that their salaries are coming, contrary to what they are getting from social media.”
Normally civil servants get paid beginning mid-month, but revenue challenges have seen tradition being broken.
The development saw teachers, nurses and the rest of the civil service getting their June salaries this month leading to the workers embarking on a three-day strike.
Minister Mupfumira said the strike was illegal as negotiation channels had not been exhausted.
“There were supposed to be four meetings ending in a deadlock and moreover they were supposed to give us notice of their intention to strike, but that was not the case,” she said.
“Most of the workers reported for duty, but I raised the issue to the workers today (yesterday) who apologised and said in future they would follow laid down procedures. The workers also told us that their strike was not politically-motivated and had nothing to do with the stayaway called by shadowy groups last week.”
She said her ministry was now planning for the workshops it intended to have with civil servants soon.
Mrs Alexander said: “I met the Minister to get a position on the pay dates against what is circulating on the social media. She is not aware who generated those dates, but pay dates will be availed to us on Friday.
“They told us that they are now seized with paying pensioners (yesterday) and grant aided institutions on Thursday. We have been assured there would be significant improvement and we await that.”
President Mugabe last week appealed to civil servants to be patient saying the country was faced with an array of challenges that included illegal sanctions imposed on the country by the West.-state media