Paul Nyathi
Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Professor Paul Mavima has urged all teachers to report for duty and deliver services to learners and regain time lost due to the Covid0-19 lockdowns.
Minister Mavima said yesterday in a statement that the cost of living adjustment made by the National Joint Negotiations Council (NJNC) should now motivate striking teachers to go back to work.
“As Government, we appreciate the noble profession and will always attempt to provide better working conditions. Yours is a noble profession because you carry the future of the nation.
Responding to journalists at the post-Cabinet briefin on Tuesday, Minister Mavima said he did not expect any teachers’ union to reject the agreed position as their leaders had agreed and signed for salary negotiations.
“The Apex Council represents all civil service associations and unions including teachers’ unions and therefore when the National Joint Negotiating Council, which is a formal platform for negotiations that we have at the moment, agrees on salary negotiations, individual unions cannot come back and say they do not agree when their leadership has agreed and signed onto the salary negotiations.
“I have seen a letter from Zimta, which is the largest teachers’ union, suggesting a roadmap for teachers to go back to their stations. If there are other unions that are saying they do not agree, I will have to understand their basis for not agreeing,” he said.
Minister Mavima said Government had between February and November moved from where teachers were complaining of earning the equivalent of US$30 and US$40 to where now they are earning more than US$200.
“We need to be realistic, we need to look to our fiscal space, economic conditions and realistically demand things that leave us as a country with the stability that we have achieved and also saying how do we move from here to where we want to go.
“We want to give our teachers a status they deserve but it has to be a realistic process. All genuine unions who do not have other agendas than the welfare of teachers are going to agree to this roadmap and the country will move forward,” he said.