Mgcini Dlamini
PROGRESSIVE Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) has refused to accept a 41 percent salary increment and branded it a starvation wage.
The union said it will consult its members on the way foward.
Civil servants, under Apex Council, on Monday caved in and accepted government’s 41% salary increase offer, which will see the lowest paid teacher getting $19 000, while the lowest earning civil servant will get about $14 000 with effect from November 1.
They also accepted bonus payments which will be staggered until December.
But, PTUZ said it does not recognise the deal.
PTUZ secretary general Raymond Majongwe expressly told The Zambezi Times that “PTUZ is not Apex Council”.
While PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said: “
“We will be consulting our members over the next three days. It is our members who will guide us on what old or new trajectory to take.
“As leadership we are merely, conveyor belts of our members’ feelings. We therefore urge our members to consult teachers across the union divide over our way forward. Our strategy and tactics as always are guided by making maximum gains and minimum losses. We will always stand by our members and ensure that a threat to any one teacher is a threat to all teachers in Zimbabwe.”
Zhou went on to launch a thinly veiled attack on unions who agreed to the 41 percent salary increment.
“For yellow trade union leaders to either see opposition politics in this or align with the employer against this is not only the worst lunacy but ludicrous hallucination of the worst order,” he said.
“Following the unilateral reduction of teachers’ salaries by government from US$520-US$550 to starvation wages it is within the purview of every trade union worthy of its salt.”
Teachers refused to go back to work after schools reopened, demanding salaries in forex.
The government recently re-opened schools after 6 months of forced closure due to the novel Corona virus.
