BULAWAYO – Defiant teachers have vowed to stand up to latest government threats to dock them pay after they and other civil servants declared “incapacitation” and resolved to work for just two days in a week.
A cabinet meeting in Harare on Wednesday heard that “the number of teachers reporting for duty has decreased” in a pay stand-off which threatens fresh disruption to learning, already put off course by the coronavirus pandemic.
Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa told reporters that “some of those reporting for duty are not teaching”, adding: “Cabinet wishes to reiterate that negotiations for improved conditions of service remain open under the National Joint Negotiating Council and that the ‘no work, no pay’ policy will be strictly enforced.”
Teachers were swift in responding to the government as they insist that members are so poorly paid they are unable to turn up for work.
“The government has threatened to use the ‘no work, no pay ‘ principle. This principle has its twin brother: ‘no pay, no work’. Dialogue is the only way forward. Coercion does not work and it will not work,” Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) national coordinator Harison Mudzuri said.
Civil servants rejected a government offer to raise their pay by up to 70 percent between April and July.
In a statement on Wednesday, the PTUZ said: “On Tuesday, teachers received ‘improved’ salaries from the government, with the highest paid now around Z$22,000 (about US$260). This is pathetic. Threats or no threats, it cannot be business as usual in classrooms. Give us our US$540, not threats.”
At the heart of the dispute between the government and public sector workers is a long-standing demand by the workers that their salaries should be restored to what they were in 2018, before the re-introduction of the local currency which quickly lost value. Then, the lowest paid worker was earning US$540.
The largest teachers’ union, ZIMTA, responded to government threats by running an online poll asking members to select “incapacitated teacher teaching days” from the options “Mondays and Tuesdays Only” and “Zero”.
Government workers say they will now escalate their fight to the International Labour Organisation.
“The government is ignoring the fact that people don’t have enough money to go to work. We intend to escalate this to the ILO and other international solidarity bodies that can lend their voice to our cause,” Public Service Association secretary general David Dzatsunga said.
