Cancellation of teachers’ leave to take centre stage at Zimta meeting

Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
THE cancellation of teachers’ vacation leave by the government a few months ago is expected to take centre stage at the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta) 35th Annual National Conference which starts here Wednesday. Close to 300 Zimta members and teachers’ organisations from the Sadc region are expected to attend the conference which ends on Saturday.

Zimta chief executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu said they were waiting for judgment on the matter which will be discussed alongside other challenges facing civil servants such as arbitrary collective bargaining mechanisms.

“We’re waiting for judgment by three judges after we presented the matter to court. People are coming to discuss the issue alongside other conditions of service. It will be an opener for the discussions,” said Ndlovu in an interview.

He accused the Civil Service Commission of abandoning its role as the facilitator and misguiding itself as an administrative agent. “CSC is no longer playing its role. They’ve gone out of their way. They should leave provision of education to the responsible ministries and concentrate on issues to do with conditions.

“We’re saying we also want to discuss the issue of Labour Law in Zimbabwe which must promote collective bargaining.” Zimta has engaged labour lawyers to discuss the cancellation of vacation leave.

The Conference also seeks to discuss, the post 2015 global development agenda, with particular focus on Sustainable Development Goal number 4 which seeks to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”

It will run under the theme “Equitable Quality Education a Public Human Right Good for Sustainable Societies”. The government recently said it was not obliged to consult anyone when taking measures on civil servants’ conditions of service and has discretion to withdraw vacation leave and reset it for another time.

It said any civil servant aggrieved by lawful directives should follow the “grievance procedure” as provided for by the CSC regulations. Last term, 2,000 teachers wanted to go on vacation leave which meant the government had to engage a similar number of relief educators at a cost of $2.5 million for the three months the substantive teachers would have been away.

The rest of the civil service, outside the education sector, don’t bring any financial burden to government if they go on vacation leave because they are not replaced.