By A Correspondent- The private sector should adjust salaries to cushion its workers from rising prices similar to the way Government has responded to the plight of civil servants who, in addition to getting more than $606 million in salaries and cushioning allowances since the beginning of the year, will be receiving a further salary increase soon and bonus payments at the end of the year, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube has said.

In an interview with South Africa-based CNBC Africa — an African pay television network — a day after the Mid-Term Fiscal Review Statement, Professor Ncube said some private sector companies, especially exporters, were not translating their profits into adequate rewards and compensation for their “hardworking employees”.

“You know what is happening, though, is that the private sector is not following suit. With the profits that they are making, especially exporters, in terms of currency translation after the introduction of the Zimbabwe dollar. They should be increasing wages for their employees, but they are not doing that,” he said.

“So we as Government are doing our part; the private sector is not doing its part. I urge them to do that so that we can all move together and deal with the issue of wage erosion for Zimbabwe workers; they work so hard and we need to ensure that they are adequately compensated and rewarded.”

Government, he said, has tried its best to offer relief to civil servants as it has paid $606 million — $206 million in cushioning allowances and a cost of living adjustment worth $400 million — since the beginning of the year.

He made assurances that Government would not only “increase salaries further”, but would pay the “usual annual bonus” as the funds have already been budgeted for.

“We have budgeted for it (civil servants salaries). It is not true that the civil servants are not happy; actually the reverse is true. We have done three things already: we have paid $63 million at the beginning of the year for the first three months of the year in a cushioning allowance in addition to salaries. We did a salary adjustment worth about $400 million on April 1 to the rest of the year. And just last week (a fortnight ago), we did another cushioning allowance worth $143 million — one-off – and we are negotiating to increase salaries further. We have budgeted for this . . . and come year-end we will pay them their usual annual bonus in the form of a 13th cheque,” he said.

Treasury believes that the rising prices are being caused by currency movements, which began when the RTGS balance and bond notes and coins were separated from the US dollar.

However, Government believes that the continued management of expenses and growing revenues, including recovering exports and declining imports, will be able to support the value of the Zimbabwe dollar.-StateMedia