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Pamela Shumba Chronicle Reporter
CIVIL servants will start receiving their new salaries next month, backdated to January this year, a Cabinet Minister has said. Following last week’s salary agreement, the lowest paid worker will be getting a monthly salary of $375, up from $297.Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Cde Nicholas Goche said: “The salary agreement between the government and civil servants’ representatives came when most of the workers had already received their January salaries. We then decided to implement the new salaries in February, although they would be backdated to January.
“I can assure all the government workers that they will start getting their new salaries on their usual pay dates beginning next month.”
Cde Goche said the government and the civil servants would go back to the negotiating table at the end of June to review the workers’ salaries.
“The government is committed to improving the welfare of civil servants. We’ve actually started working on the implementation of the other non-monetary agreements such as housing and empowerment programmes for the workers,” he said.
Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) chief executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu said: “All the issues that we agreed on with the government are with immediate effect. We’ve already started working on the implementation of the agreements.
“The government agreed that workers will start getting their salaries next month and they would be backdated to January. We agreed that the government should start the implementation of indigenisation programmes for civil servants and the provision of land for housing purposes and other non-monetary benefits.”
Ndlovu said another salary review was expected mid-year. Civil servants union representatives said while the increment offered by the government was not what they expected, they were happy they were now able to negotiate.
They said they had accepted the marginal increment after taking into consideration the state of the economy Apex Council, the umbrella body bringing together all public sector unions, accepted the government’s offer, bringing the total package for the lowest paid civil servant in Grade B1 to $375 up from $297.
The adjustments were effected on the basic salary only while transport ($66) and housing allowances ($91) remained unchanged.
Under the new salary structure, those in Grade D1 , such as teachers straight out of college, would get $500 up from $446 while those in E1 such as deputy directors would get $623.
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