adminparties hit a deadlock on the issue.
The determination of a housing allowance for the insurance sector has been raging on since 2007
Insurance Employee Association of
Zimbabwe secretary-general Mr Moses Hunga said employers in the sector
have been deliberately stalling the negotiations.
“Prior to dollarisation, the employers argued that they could not afford the housing allowance because of the hyperinflation, and post-dollarisation they simply said they had no money.
“At the beginning of the year, we presented the matter but the employers association said they were only prepared to discuss the matter at half year backdating the payments to January, but again that failed to materialise,” he said.
A representative from the employers’ side who spoke to the Herald Business said it was impossible to make such a ‘drastic change’ after mid-year.
“Companies have already finalised their budgets for the year, and we can only talk about introducing the housing allowance in 2012,” he said.
Latest indications are that the housing allowance for the insurance sector may well be introduced by the first quarter of next year.
Principals to the negotiating
parties, including Mr Hunga, the employers’ association chairman Mr Lawrence
Gonye and National Employment Council for the Insurance Industry
independent chairman Mr Edson Chinjekure met several weeks ago to map out a forward strategy on setting the housing allowance.
It is believed the principals thrashed out a new date during this last quarter for the commencement of negotiations for introducing the housing allowance at the beginning of next year.
Earlier in April, workers in the
sector received a 19 percent across-the-board wage increment (that is, including both union and non-union members) backdated to January.
Prior the latest increment, the least paid employees in the insurance industry were earning US$210 a month, with the highest paid non-managerial employee earning US$513 a month.
The country’s insurance industry is on an apparent re-bound, if a steady increase in demand for policy cover during the course of last year is anything to go by.
Online Reporter