adminLatwell Nyangu and Talent Gore
THE GOVERNMENT has been commended by public service unions for awarding civil servants bonuses this year.
The Public Service Commission (PSC) indicated in a statement that the 13th cheque will be treated as per the signed agreement at the recent meeting of the National Joint Negotiation Council (NJNC).
The bonus will be paid out in two equal batches this month and next month.
Some civil service unions said the Government had shown its highest level of appreciation for the hard work done by its workers.
APEX Council of Zimbabwe president, David Dzatsunga, said:
“The feeling is one of gratitude. We really appreciate this gesture, although we would have wanted more.
“The generality of civil servants are happy as it’s better than previous years.
“We believe this is the beginning and just a general gesture of appreciation. As usual we expect more, but the Government has done well.”
Similar sentiments were echoed by Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZNA) president, Enock Dongo.
“Yes, this is a good development since everyone who worked during Covid-19 deserves to be thanked. It would have been best if the Government had given us yese ka one, but it will come in batches, which is still fine, but we wanted to buy zvinhu zvacho at once,” said Dongo.
Secretary to Service Commissions, Dr Tsitsi Choruma, said the bonus will constitute the 13th cheque plus a Special Presidential Bonus.
Dr Choruma said the Commission noted that director grades, and above, signed performance contracts at the beginning of this year and will receive bonuses at the beginning of next year.
“It is in view of these performance contracts that directors, and above, will not receive any bonus in 2022, but rather will, at the beginning of 2023, get performance awards based on their performance for the year 2022,” she said.
“These awards will only be extended to directors, and above, after all evaluations and assessments for the year 2022 are completed. Only director grades, and above, who meet their set targets will get performance awards.”
Dr Choruma said this was in line with the Government’s new practice of performance contracting which only rewards satisfactory performance and sanctions non-satisfactory performance for directors.
“Government is committed to ensuring that a results-based, high performance, high productivity work culture is inculcated within the civil service.
“From 2023 onwards, performance contracting, which had only thus far been for director grades and above, will also be cascaded to all civil servants of all grades across the board,” said Dr Choruma.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter