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Opinion Cuthbert Mavheko
In his address during the official opening of the Eighth Parliament of Zimbabwe recently, President Mugabe assured the country that Zanu-PF will deliver on its long list of elections promises. He said one of the new Government’s priorities is to ensure that civil servants’ salaries are reviewed urgently so that their living standards are improved.
In line with Zanu-PF’s election pledges, the government it formed has cancelled rates arrears, providing a huge sigh of relief from the people. But the Government has to do more to ensure that all workers are awarded decent salaries for them to be able to pay their rates timeously and not expect a repeat of such relief in future. The Government should also move in to scrap all Zesa bills in the same manner that it scrapped council rates arrears, so that people can begin on a clean slate. The $160 that was scrapped per household is too small as many households owe thousands of dollars in electricity arrears.
Zesa bills have been a nightmare for urban consumers since the introduction of the multi-currency system in 2009. The bills have continued to eat into people’s pockets, leaving many a hapless consumer in a restive mood. In February 2010, civil servants downed tools and embarked on a countrywide strike that crippled public service delivery and affecting various sectors of the economy. The strikers were demanding a hike in salaries from the then $150 for the lowest paid worker to average minimum income levels of about $500. Be that as it may, the cash-strapped Inclusive Government could only afford a 10 percent increment for all its workers.
As I pen this piece, civil servants are demanding a minimum of $540 a month and 30 percent of basic salary as a rural allowance. What this means is that if the Government sanctions these demands, the lowest paid civil servants in the rural areas will now earn $702 a month, inclusive of rural allowance. Teachers’ unions, on the other hand are reportedly demanding $1 000 as the minimum salary for teachers. Given the foregoing, the question that we now have to ask is: Does the new Government have the financial wherewithal to effect such hefty increments, given the state of our economy?
Any economist worth his salt will tell you that such salary demands are not only outrageous, but are also totally bereft of economic realism at this point in our economic recovery efforts. In case my real motives are misconstrued, let me hasten to point out that I am not at variance with civil servants’ salary demands per se. My intentions are not so ignoble.
As a matter of fact, I subscribe unequivocally to the view that civil servants, like every Zimbabwean worker, deserve remuneration that is reasonable and commensurate with the cost of living.
However, my point of departure is that any salary increment awarded civil servants, or any other worker for that matter, should be in tandem with current market trends, because doing otherwise will certainly have adverse ramifications on our economy, which at the moment, is hobbling along on crutches.
It is pertinent to note that Zimbabwe’s estimated 250 000 civil servants gobble up 70 percent of Government revenue, according to official figures. While they consume such a huge chunk from the national cake, they account for less than three percent of the population. Today the lowest paid civil servant earns about $297 a month while his/her counterpart in industry toils for less that $200 a month.
The tragic irony is that workers in industry generate their earnings, civil servants don’t. They are merely service providers and their employer, the Government, is not a profit making establishment.
Resources are scarce and the little that the country had should be availed to the private sector for the development and improvement of infrastructure and services that support the sector in order to maximise productivity and generate income.
It is the contention of this writer that before civil servants are awarded any meaningful salary increments, it is obligatory for the new Government to, first and foremost, revive industry which is currently in the doldrums, and increase productivity to competitive levels.
The Government should then hike the emoluments of workers in the private sector, particularly those in the manufacturing sector, so that the majority of them are pushed into taxable – income brackets.
This will widen the Government’s revenue base as more income tax will flow into its depleted coffers, thus enabling it to pay its workers decent remuneration.
Indeed, it presents a painful paradox to note that while workers in industry are the creators of the country’s wealth, the majority of them are marooned on a small island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.
According to some reports, over 85 percent of workers in industry eke out a living on less than $1 a day. As stated earlier, the average worker in industry labours for infinitesimal $200 a month which after deductions, is reduced to about $140 or thereabouts. From this meagre amount, the poor worker has to fork out about $70 for rent (a single room), about $15 a month for electricity, an average of $10 for water and about $25 a month for transport.
This leaves him/her with almost nothing for food, clothing and other day-to day expenses like firewood, paraffin and candles as power cuts are the norm nowadays. The remuneration of the majority of workers in industry is so pathetic that they are unable to sustain their immediate families, let alone the extended family structure that is part of Zimbabwe’s value system.
The textile industry recently concluded wage/salary negotiations for the 1 October to 30 June 2014 period. According to a memorandum from the national employment council of the textile industry, dated 3 October 2013, workers in the sector were awarded a seven percent across the board wage/salary increment for the 1 October to December 2013 period and a further 2,656 percent increment for the January to 30 June 2014 period.
The new rates of pay in the textile sector, according to this memorandum, are as follows: level one $194, 83 which will be raised to $200 in January 2014; level two – $198,21 ($203 in January); level three – $203,84 ($209,25) in January, level four – $207,22 ($212,72 January) and so forth. It should be stated here that this increment, which includes housing and transport allowances was supposed to be backdated to 1 July 2013, but it was not.
Conversely, an agreement that was signed by the Zimbabwe Textile Workers Union (ZTWU), which represents workers in the textile sector, and the Zimbabwe Textile Manufacturers Association (ZITMA), which represents employers in the same sector, states in clear unambiguous language, that the 5,25 percent salary increment which workers in the sector received in February 2013 was for a period of six months – 1 January 2013 to 30 June 2013.
The next increment was to be for the 1 July to 30 December 2013 because workers in the textile industry are awarded wages/salary increments twice a year (January and July) in line with the provisions of the said agreement.
This agreement is legally binding and ZITMA trampled on it when it refrained from back-paying increments awarded for the second half of the year. This is an unfair labour practice, which can be addressed through recourse to a court of law.
While workers in industry are being ripped off by their employers in broad daylight, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which represents the majority of workers in the country, has been conspicuous by its deafening silence.
Indeed, there is hardly any evidence that the labour movement is still interested in championing the cause of the toiling workers in industry.
This reminds me of the late Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, who once made a touching remark, noting that: “Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter