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Harare Bureau
Government will this year de-compress grades of civil servants and start paying them according to experience, seniority and qualification, Public Service Labour and Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche has said. Minister Goche said the processes to de-bunch the grades had already started and soon the workers would start being paid accordingly.
This comes amid reports that many civil servants, mainly those in the education sector, do not aspire to be promoted because the salary difference was so insignificant and could be as little as US$1.
Civil servants unions, in their position paper handed to Government two weeks ago, had pointed out the decompression of grades as one of their grievances.
Minister Goche said that he had tasked the Civil Service Commission to work on the anomaly after deliberations with Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa.
“This is an area for concern and I have tasked the CSC to rectify that and once the processes are through everyone will start being paid according to his qualification and experience,” he said.
“Minister Chinamasa has told us the extent to which he can manage and we are working on that because surely a person must look forward to promotion.”
Minister Goche said things went wrong during the formalisation of the multi-currency system in 2009 as every civil servant was paid a uniform US$100.
“Things were normal before that but Government failed when the multicurrency was introduced because there were no funds to decompress the grades,” he said.
“It is saddening that one can get a difference of US$3 if promoted from one grade to another and that needs to be corrected.”
Many companies have also failed to implement significant salary differences since 2009. Currently, difference between one step and the next step for teachers, for example those under the D1 category — straight from college — is about US$1 per year, while they get an increment of US$5 after five years. Civil servants union leaders on Friday said the de-bunching exercise was long overdue.
“This is an issue fundamental to our conditions of service,” said Zimbabwe Teachers Association chief executive Sifiso Ndlovu.
“This is what has been stalling the workers’ motivation because there is no incentive in being promoted. If one is a headmaster, deputy or senior teacher one should have something to show that. We hope that process will be expedited such that we have a motivated workforce.”
Online Reporter