The Secondary School Teachers Union of Zambia(SESTUZ) has dispelled assertions that government has imposed a wage freeze on civil servants.
SESTUZ General Secretary Wamuyuwa Sitibekiso says contrary to the assertions, SESTUZ and other Unions are currently engaged in serious negotiations with government over revision of working conditions for civil servants.
Mr. Sitibekiso said the negotiations are going smoothly adding that no deadlock has been reached.
He said it was untrue that government was going to put up a wage freeze, as being rumoured by sections of society.
He urged the SESTUZ members to remain calm and ignore the wage freeze rumour being spread by social media.
According to a named On-line news paper, President Michael Sata and his PF government has imposed a wage freeze for all civil servants and government related institutions from this year till further notice.
Sources close to the on-going negotiations taking place in Siavonga for increased salaries and conditions of service for civil servants said the cabinet office team that is representing Mr. Sata said they are not going to move until they get fresh instructions to adjust salaries this year.
Sources said the national wage bill has just become to huge to sustain under the PF government that has an unprecedented large cabinet and deputy ministers in many ministries.
Meanwhile, SESTUZ has commended government on its plan to recruit retired teachers to cushion the current shortage of teachers being experienced countrywide.
He described the move as progressive, saying teachers have for a long time now been overloaded, in some instances with one teacher having up to 38 periods in one week.
Mr. Sitibekiso however urged government to improve working conditions for teachers in rural areas to avoid rural- urban migration of teachers which has caused a serious shortage of teachers in rural schools.
Yesterday’s local media reports say that government will recruit retired teachers to cushion the shortage of staff in the country.
ZANIS
we will want and see
Let them just recruit new teachers as they are many unemployed young teacher in the streets.
satana increased his salary by 100%. what is it that you are negotiating? let them just increase your salaries by 100% as well. these so called union leaders are too corrupt. they will accept anything short of expectation of their members as long they satisfy their selfish goals. this has led to public service workers been the poorest of any working group in zambia. thank God am not part of this rotten system.
Any way rumours can grow anywhere even on trees and can also blow like air.I really don’t think a wage freeze is possible at a time when the government is trying to increase efficiency and productivity.These two go with motivation and the only motivation available is a salary raise.
The government should not even think about it because we are not trying to reach the HIPC (Highly indebted poor Countries) Point.
We do not have a shortage of teachers in Zambia,what we have is poor distribution of teachers.In most schools in urban areas teachers are overstaffed some with less than 12periods per week.
Teachers union! Please comment on your own bussiness. Let government pass a statement. We don’t want to be fooled by your useless statement and end up in a wage freeze
Engaging tired teachers is not the best solution.These people had their time,let them contribute effectively to the nation not only depending on salaries or wages.When are they going to be independent on their own.We can not develop with such mentality of dependance .
The way of running govt by pf amazes me. They are over 20 000 trained teachers loaming the streets & you want to employ tired teachers like you have done to politicians like chikwanda . Shame on this pf govt
Where I live, some people work past the retirement age of 67, It’s up to them to say they are tired. The retirees still contribute to the running of the economy and it’s one of the best countries to live. There is nothing wrong with Chikwanda being minister, if what he’s doing is sound, it does not matter how old he is.
A wage freeze is the least expected. Such issues shud not come up during negotiations.Its better to mention it at the close of the negotiation to mean that the following year no negotiations wil be held