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The minister was speaking during a parliamentary pre-budget seminar in Victoria Falls last Friday.
Civil servants’ unions said the minister should respect the negotiating framework put in place by the Government, which includes consulting them before salaries were adjusted.
Apex Council chairperson Mr David Dzatsunga said workers’ representatives should be consulted before Government implements its decision on the salary incre-ment.
Salary increments for civil servants are normally negotiated and agreed upon under the National Joint Negotiating Council, a platform that brings together the Government team and workers’ representatives.
“Government has not consulted or negotiated with us.
“We do not know what the package includes.
“It simply shows that he (Biti) does not respect the negotiating framework that Government purports to have put in place.”
Mr Dzatsunga said it would be an “insult” if the workers learn of their salary increment through the Press.
The workers, for the first time since independence, failed to get a salary increment this year.
Zimbabwe Teachers Association president Mrs Tendai Chikowore described Minister Biti’s announcement as arrogant, adding that they were forwarding a position paper to him for consideration in the forthcoming national budget.
The 2013 National Budget announcement is slated for November 15.
“We have written to him seeking an audience with him because we are also an important stakeholder in budget formulation.
“What he has shown us by his statements is that whether we like it or not we are going to receive an imposed increment,” she said.
Mrs Chikowore accused Minister Biti of giving parliamentarians a special privilege, which she says should also be extended to civil servants.
The least-paid Government worker is getting US$296 while the poverty datum line is above US$600.
Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe chief executive Mr Manuel Nyawo said any talk of salary increments outside the NJNC should be treated with suspicion.
“We have never met Minister Biti this year as workers, but we are surprised he is preparing increments for the workers outside our knowledge,” he said.
Minister Biti said the salary increment was top priority for Government next year, although he did not provide figures.
He said the increment would be effected despite a liquidity squeeze that has seen Government spending up to 74 percent of its revenue on wages.
The workers have been agitating for an increment that is in line with the PDL for the past three years without success.
Minister Biti has repeatedly told them that Government was operating on a “shoe-string” budget making it impossible to increase salaries for the more than 230 000 civil servants.
leeroy