Salary cuts for council employees

Vusumuzi Dube Municipal Reporter
@vusadb
THE Bulawayo City Council is headed for a collision course with its workers after it passed a resolution to cut workers’ salaries by 20 percent despite a Government directive that the local authority’s remuneration guidelines must be guided by the Poverty Datum Line. The local authority passed a resolution a couple of weeks ago that will, with immediate effect, see it withdrawing a 20 percent critical shortage areas allowance that it awarded to its employees in 2001. Council nurses were the only employees that had had the 20 percent removed from their salaries in March 2010 after it was noted that there was an abundance of nurses in the labour market due to the economic improvements following the introduction of the multi-currency regime.

In the latest development the local authority resolved the allowance will be withdrawn across all departments and all positions will now be de-listed from the category eligible for the allowance.

According to a council confidential report, the local authority has since resolved to withdraw the allowance as, among other reasons, the labour market was now awash with qualified personnel who were laid off when a number of companies were closed.

“The last general review of the critical shortage areas allowance (20 percent of basic salary) had been in 2001. Subsequently council resolved to withdraw nursing staff from the category of personnel eligible for the 20 percent allowance. This was prompted by the abundance of nurses in the labour market due to the economic improvement following the introduction of the multi-currency regime.

“The management committee resolved to recommend that it was time that the 20 percent critical shortage areas allowance be withdrawn across council service. In the ensuing debate it was generally accepted that with only a few exceptions, no profession was in short supply now as the labour market had adequate competent and experienced personnel. There was therefore no justification for the continuation of the 20 percent incentive,” reads part of the report.

In listing the reasons behind the withdrawal of the allowance the local authority noted that; “Council was paying a competitive salary that attracted qualified personnel across professions. The increase in polytechnic colleges and universities in the country has resulted in large numbers of graduates joining the labour market every year.

“The labour market was awash with very experienced personnel who were laid off when a number of companies closed and the introduction of the multi-currency regime had decreased the numbers of professionals moving abroad in search of better remuneration.”

Last week the Government announced a cap of the the salary for Bulawayo City Council Town Clerk at $7 400 down from $9 000 and further ordered the local authority to pay its lowest paid employee a salary in line with the poverty datum line.

In addition, the Government refused to approve the council’s 2016 budget arguing that BCC was still struggling to meet stipulated thresholds of ensuring that 70 percent of revenue goes to service delivery while 30 percent goes to salaries.

Zimbabwe’s poverty datum line is pegged at slightly more than $500.

According to the council’s salary schedule contained in a confidential council report, the lowest paid worker, who is grade one gets a basic salary of $180 per month that can be incentivised to notch six where they can get up to $241. Grade two workers get $255 and their maximum notch is $340. Grade three workers get a basic salary of $360.