Chronicle Editor
Government and civil servants have finally agreed on the new salary scale. The Apex council president, Mrs Cecilia Alexander said although the Government’s salary offer was below the civil servants’ expectations, they accepted it while negotiations for a better package continue.
The salaries have been increased by between 133 percent and 172 percent depending in one’s grade. What is encouraging is the civil servants’ spirit of engaging as opposed to being confrontational. It should be appreciated that for any negotiations to succeed, the parties involved must be prepared to move from their initial positions.
We want at this juncture to commend both Government and the civil servants for finding each other given the challenging prevailing economic environment. Government has sacrificed despite its limited resources to review its workers’ salaries upwards and the workers have accepted less than what they were demanding.
We have said it before that employers can only pay salaries they can afford and Government is no exception. Now that the workers’ salaries have been increased, we expect them to reciprocate by striving to do their best to improve service delivery.
Reports of civil servants loafing around should be a thing of the past. Every worker should put shoulder to the wheel to improve service delivery and attract the much-needed investors.
Government has said it remains sensitive to the plight of civil servants which means it will continue to review their salaries as the economy improves. It is therefore incumbent upon each and every civil servant to play his or her role in growing the economy to enable Government to improve working conditions. Government is also offering non-monetary incentives such as housing stands as part of measures to improve the welfare of its workers.
Every citizen should appreciate that our economy has been stagnant for almost two decades and coming out of the woods is not an event but a process that can take years. Government has said it should not be work as usual but individuals should put extra effort every day to improve output.
President Mnangagwa has declared 2020 a year of Productivity and Trade which means more resources will be availed to boost production.
We want to once again implore civil servants to focus on improving service delivery which is crucial if the country is to attract investors. Civil servants who just report to work to hang their jackets and leave to do their personal business should be weeded out of the public service because they are shortchanging the employer.
It is critical for Government to put mechanisms in place to account for each and every worker during working hours.
Online Reporter