SOME unionised Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) employees in Ndola yesterday resolved to go on strike while their colleagues at Kasumbalesa, Nakonde, Lusaka and Livingstone border post have resorted to be on a sit-in.
A Times Reporter who visited the Ndola ZRA office, Indeni and Ndola Post Office branches yesterday found the workers doing nothing in their offices while some clients were being turned away.
Some Zambia Revenue Authority Workers Union (ZRAWU) members in Ndola said they would not return to work until management meets their demand of a 25 per cent salary increment.
A check at the ZRA headquarters in Lusaka found unionised workers wandering outside the revenue building in the company of their union representatives.
ZRA spokesperson Samuel Bwalya said the action by the workers was unlawful and contravened the collective agreement.
[Times of Zambia]
What is illegal about their sit in when you can not adhere to their cries? This management gets more than enough when it’s lower graded employees who are on the ground to collectrevenue are lowerly paid.
This culture should change if Zambia is to move forward-let the Govt get involved it will affect the entire nation
What do you expect when GRZ has scrapped off windfall tax which could even have improved the salaries of these tax men.Now that money ment for windfall tax is being externalised.shame.
Workers at ZRA are also human beings who deserve a decent pay. Is it normal to collect K50 billion from humble hard workers, chew it at campaigns and then zembeleka the same workers to collect more billions for your trip to check on your itching knee in South Africa? Will the workers feed their children on your trips or on your knee? Just give me the rise so that they can also enjoy and be fat like those people at NCC. Ala!
Bushe ama Civil Servants balifola? Who will collect revenue now?
Please may someone enlighten us on the basic salary of these ZRA workers. It will hope us to calculate the 25% that they are demanding and debate better. I had an impression that ZRA workers were very well paid like those who work at National Assembly, supporting staff (not MPs). I would vote for a candidate in next year’s election who promises to cut the salaries of the workers in some government departments including National assembly workers so that they are equivalent to those of other govt workers like teachers, nurses, agricultural workers etc. being in position of collecting money for the government should not entitle the ZRA workers to be getting more money than opther workers. Actually most of the ZRA workers are thieves. They are living far beyond their earning.
Well Kashimani@5-it 8% increment on people getting between K800,000 to about K3,500,000 – I know of very devoted children of God working for this organisation that are living within their means and do not engage them selves in wrong pratices-people that are not corrupt should not suffer at the expense of few thieves NO NO.
8% has been proposed by commissioner and directors I am told who get above K30million-now calculate these director’s and commissioner’s 8%
What we are saying is the increment is only 64,000 to 280,000 for 8%. Instead of 200,000 to 875,000. These people collect trillions so 25% increase is ok.
Number 6,Speaking time,did u say directors get above 30 million,my dear,its more than 90 million per month.So why not increase for someone who gets a 2 million and sweats the whole year to collect the same money.
Ladies and Gentlemen!!
The 25% salary increment that these ZRA workers are asking for is not astronomical considering that the highest paid unionised worker gets around 5m pay month. However, the inflation rate and prices of major commodities has continued to rise and ZRA employees are not immune to such.
Lets not brand all hard working and God fearing employees as being corrupt just because of a few people that you have known and whom you think are leaving beyond their earning. 99% of ZRA employees are hard working, education, vibrant cottupt free young zambians struggling to raise their young families. If you ahev evidence of anyone being involved in corruption, its better to report them to law enforcement agencies and believe me those that have been found wanting have been visit
Ladies and Gentlemen!!
The 25% salary increment that these ZRA workers are asking for is not astronomical considering that the highest paid unionised worker gets around 5m pay month. However, the inflation rate and prices of major commodities has continued to rise and ZRA employees are not immune to such.
Lets not brand all hard working and God fearing employees as being corrupt just because of a few people that you have known and whom you think are leaving beyond their earnings. 99% of ZRA employees are hard working, education, vibrant corrupt free young zambians struggling to raise their young families.
If you have evidence of anyone being involved in corruption, its better to report them to law enforcement agencies and believe me those that have been found wanting have been visited by the axe and have always been separated from ZRA.
Do you know parastatals and authorities such as BOZ, NAPSA, ERB, ZICTA, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, RDA, RTSA, etc pay 4-5 times as much as what employees at ZRA are being paid? So ZRA just needs to be in line with what these other parastatals are paying. Corruption will surely increase if you have disatisfied workforce and as we speak, morale is at its lowest. Another reason targets are not being met. Lots of tax is going uncollected because the people are not being motivated.
@8-I know that I mention is only for directors i guess and I said above.I know the CG gets over K130million.Then he fails to pay his workers well—-Let him compare with BOZ–becouse it is his workers that do the work for the treasury
The real problem here is Criticles Mwansa the ZRA CEO.Ever since RB promised him VEEP,the man has became BIG headed and developed a thick skin.The problems at ZRA are insurmontable and solving them recruits mature proffessional not cadres like Criticles Mwansa.How do u send a battlion of police to intimidate peaceful workers who are demanding for what is duly due to them?Thats pure madness and a waste of resources.
only God will judge us and bring an end to this earthly suffering.
This strike is very sweet!:d
@13 Irate ZRA worker-Tell the police to be serious also,they failed to perform in mufumbwe where they made a pact with the useless finished MMD and now they want to do a show down at Revenue House-we are not asleep we are watching you guys…..Criticles should reason with his staff..this move may affect the nation….Let Liato coma and reason with all of you but please never get back to work untill your demands are met….GOD bless you and make sure purity in your work exists…shame on the CG—he is not proud of his hardworking staff
My prayer is i hope a solution is found b-4 Katie Good,Senior Citizen and the Chief bootlicker start callin ZRA workers PACT kaponyas.
Comment 5 Kashimani, the basic and lowest salary in Government institution like ZRA is K6million. This is no comparison to the K1.5 million that nurses, teachers and other workers you’ve talked about get. The thing is, money is never enough. Its also true that poverty is a relative term meaning that one can be regarded poor or rich depending on where one finds themselves.
The workers deserve better perks so they are aligned with economical challenges. The GRZ ia aware the money is not enough and I think GRZ was told about the complaint. Absolutely nothing was done hence the workers went ‘red shirts’. If we had a listening Govt the could have cut some costs i.e scrape position of deputy minister and empower permanent secretaries, overall the number of cabinet ministers must be reduced that way the civil servants will have confidence the Govt cares. I challenge the minister of finance to budget out of K2m and see how he will manage to fuel his car, pay rental, school fees, electricity, water and a beer. It is amazing they think things are alright.
Life maker you are a liar the least paid say at zra is k1.7m. Where do you work? learn to tell the truth
@18 Life Maker–Where do you get such statistics?Get to the ground and get information then you will be able to even represent people…ZRA lowest paid is called Grade ZRA10 ask how much they get especially new employees—You will be shocked
Just give them the salary increments they want or you risk losing the much needed revenue.
The workers then explained their problems to Sata.
“Ubuchushi, we have suffered. We are on a go-slow. Maybe they are going to listen to us,” one of the workers complained. “They have given a target to raise K50 billion for campaigns in 2011.”source Post newspaper
The underlying problem is that since ZRA was removed from getting a cimissukn on it’s collections findings from Ministry of Finance has been poor. This has affected both pay and operations. Bottomline – ZRA must get a percentage (e.g. 1.5%) of revenue collections. This will also give incentive to collect more.
Alah bane. ninshi fyachitika ni ba tata ba gorge kunda? ati kashishi kalibasuma. ati bood yabo ali pya
ZRA union I am told is to meet Liato today but I wonder if this move will yield anything..Management is just supposed to reason with workers period then all will be gone…Please get what belongs to you–Never listen to someone who will seem to care yet his pay is more than neccessary….Go on unionised workers—Zambia is for us all not Criticles and Liato alone—Union speak for your people when you meet the Labour Minister and Minister move in sensibly
If ZRA workers are given the increment the total wage bill for the year will shoot to K40 billion, out of this amount only K8 billion goes to the employees and the remaining K32 billion is for management. Management is not telling govt the truth about the break down of the wage bill, they are just saying it will be too high and yet they take 80% of it.
The entire ZRA work force is roughly 1,600 employees and out of this number management is 20%. Now compare the ratio of the wage bill for employees to that of management. this kind of greediness only lead to failure