4 July 2009
THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has warned that workers are losing patience with employers who continue to pay wages below the poverty datum line despite signs that the economy is recovering.
The majority of workers who are civil servants have been earning allowances of US$100 a month since the government formally adopted multiple currencies in February.
Unions want workers to be paid at least US$454 a month, which is the poverty datum line.
"Workers have been patient enough and lack of interest on the part of employers to address the issue of low salaries will throw the country into chaos," ZCTU secretary- general Wellington Chibebe said in a statement.
"The workers continue to bear the brunt as politicians' promises fail to materialise."
Chibebe said claims that President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai were also surviving on the US$100 allowances were misleading.
He said politicians and senior civil servants had other sources of income.
"There are workers earning as little as $10 a month and they have no other sources of income," Chibebe said.
Workers in urban areas such as Harare also have to grapple with high utility bills with an average Zesa monthly charge pegged at US$30.
"A low salary coupled with huge utility bills is a recipe for disaster.
"This country cannot afford a de-motivated workforce. There is no production if workers constantly worry about how they are going to make ends meet.
"They will be forced to take matters into their own hands if the situation continues unchecked," Chibebe said.
In a desperate bid to persuade teachers to abandon their threatened job boycott, the government promised that it would start paying civil servants proper salaries this month.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti is expected to announce the new package when he presents his mid-term fiscal policy review later this month.
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