BULAWAYO – Zimbabwe’s largest teachers’ union has tabled a list of demands to the government, including the payment of bonuses in United States dollars and a demand that salaries be raised to US$540 by the end of November or face industrial action.

The Zimbabwe Teachers’ Union (ZIMTA) executive met at Ehlekwini Vocational Training Institute last Saturday following which it issued a declaration, warning that teachers are “sinking deeper into incapacitation” and US dollar payments were “the only way to avert crushing them deeper into poverty and dysfunction.”

The union said: “ZIMTA resolved that the employer must pay the 2021 bonuses for educators in full this November to cushion educators against inflation-induced income losses.

“In the same declaration, the educators are demanding that government puts in place a facility that enables teachers to access the weekly US$50 from their individual nostro accounts. This has been necessitated by failure of the majority to access their weekly forex   allocations availed to them via local banks and bureau de changes by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Ultimately, this move will enable educators to access part of their salaries in USD and eventually solve a longstanding grievance from the teachers.”

Teachers also want the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) to pay them invigilation fees for final year examinations starting this month.

“Finally, and most importantly, the declaration stated that the salary for a Grade D level teacher of US$540 has to be honoured by November 2021 at the latest. ZIMTA warns the employer that failure to meet these demands from the educators, within the above specified time frames, may lead into disruptions of activities within schools, compromising the quality and equal access to education for learners, disturbing examination invigilation and ultimately the failure of moderation and capture of CALA results,” the union said.

ZIMTA said its members “declared that unspecified actions emanating from teacher disgruntlement were likely to occur should their demands be ignored.”

A teacher’s net salary is just over Z$16,000 or about US$95 on the widely-used foreign exchange black market. Teachers like other civil servants want the government to restore them to the 2008 salary levels when the lowest paid employee earned US$540.