adminThe state of affairs is a reflection of the performance of the national economy. It will therefore be naïve to conclude that the Government or employers in the private sectors are deliberately refusing to pay workers a living wage.
Many companies are operating way below capacity and this has a direct bearing on the fiscus whose bulk of revenue is from corporate taxes. It is therefore prudent for both the civil servants and the workers in the private sector to demand affordable salaries.
It serves no purpose for workers to be paid hefty salaries say this month and go for several months without receiving salaries because the company or the Government cannot afford the wage bill. Many companies including many parastatals cannot afford their wage bills
and there are no prospects that one day the companies will be able to meet the wage bills.
The past few weeks have seen civil servants downing tools as they pressed for improved salaries and working conditions. The workers are demanding that the lowest paid worker should get at least $538 a month which is the PDL. We totally agree that for the public service to remain attractive to professionals, Government should pay better salaries as well as improve the general conditions of service.
We have said it before that in other countries the Public Service is the employer of choice and this used to be the same in this country before we experienced the economic meltdown during the past decade. We have already alluded to the fact that Government as well as employers in the private sector remain hamstrung by the poor performance of the economy but despite these challenges workers should be paid living wages.
It is therefore important for Government and employers in the private sector to constantly review wages and salaries in tandem with the performance of the economy. The workers and employers should always engage each other so that both parties appreciate the challenges and together workout the best way forward.
The civil servants strike could have been avoided had Government continued to engage workers. The myth that Government is a bottomless pit can only be discarded if civil servants are presented with true figures on Government’s income and expenditure.
Government has increased civil servants’ salaries by between $43 and $58 a month which might be considered insufficient by civil servants but this is what the Government can afford at the moment. It is our fervent hope that the Government will continue to review the salaries as revenue inflows improve.
Government should at the same time continue to explore other alternative incentives to retain qualified personnel such as availing car and housing loans to its workers. We want to once again implore both workers and employers to continuously engage each other as we work towards improving the performance of our national economy so that at the end of the day workers are paid living wages.
Online Reporter