OUT of anxiety and perhaps frustrations born out of losing employment, Zamtel workers may have reason to get worried about their future and express displeasure about it.

It may even be understandable when they complain about anomalies in the retrenchment packages and delay in receiving the pay cheques.

Even those who are receiving less than anticipated amounts may also complain, but it is worrying that there are suggestions that there is a conspiracy by Government, Zamtel management and the owners to deliberately ill-treat the workers.

And these sort of suggestions are mostly coming from the usual suspects, i.e. the perennial Government critics who take every opportunity, whether real or imagined, to take potshots at Government.

Ever since the workers raised complaints of anomalies and the slight delay in payment, opposition leaders quickly jumped to the conclusion that the money meant for the payment of packages had been diverted.

Others have gone so far as accusing the ruling MMD of attempting to divert funds for campaign purposes and going by the history of the critics, the accusations against Government, management and the new investors can only get outrageous just to gain cheap popularity.

It appears the more outlandish the allegation, the greater the satisfaction the critics seem to get.

This is where the Zamtel workers and the National Union of Communication Workers (NUCW) need to be careful on how they go about raising their grievances.

If they are not careful, political opportunists seeking to present themselves as servants of the people will hijack their genuine issues, and these matters may degenerate to a level that unsettles the investor.

Reasonable explanation has been given by management and most of the so-called delays or anomalies are purely administrative, systemic or procedural errors that can and will be corrected.

There is no need to start panicking and causing unnecessary alarm when not all is lost and the process of paying retrenchment packages is still going on.