HARARE – The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ)’s perennial problems persist as the agency has gone for a week without internet access due to non-payment of rates to service providers, sources have revealed.
Ordinary workers’ output has reportedly been negatively impacted by the internet outage, whereas top management, which has the luxury of phone data allowances, has been unaffected.
An unexpected 24-hour shift in pay dates from January 12 to January 24 has added insult to injury to the troubled organisation’s persistent woes.
Sources said morale at CAAZ is at its lowest with disgruntled employees having embarked on a go-slow action in protest over their employer’s poor management of the quasi-government institution.
The authority, in an internal circular dated January 11, announced a three-month salary schedule shift 24 hours before employees were due to receive their wages.
CAAZ claimed the switch had been caused by cash flow challenges.
CAAZ’s human resource director S. Chishaya, in the short 24 hours’ notice, stated that the authority would return to its normal pay day schedule once the cashflow issues were resolved.
“Management is taking some initiatives to improve the cash flow situation and once this materialises, the authority will revert to the original schedule of pay dates as in the previous years,” read the letter.
Last year, ordinary employees were outraged when the company lavished its bosses with the lion’s share of a monthly wage budget of US$320,000 for its 250 employees.
Insiders also complained about large wage disparities between Air Controllers with only ‘A’ level qualifications and those with university degrees.
The gaping discrepancy was reportedly fuelling the discontent after it was revealed that the former were being paid more than their more qualified counterparts.
Attempts to reach the CAAZ communication department for comment on the matter were futile as their phone was not reachable.
