EDITORIAL COMMENT: Move to act on civil service wage bill welcome

chronicleThe government has now announced the route it will take in cutting its expenditure on salaries and allowances for its workers. As we report elsewhere today, the wage bill rationalisation plan does not entail the much feared job cuts but will see a drastic reduction in student teachers’ allowances, freezing of vacancies, a halt to the government’s contribution to salaries of teachers serving at private and trust schools and the restoration of employee contributions to their pensions.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira said Cabinet has approved the rationalisation matrix. Bus fare for civil servants has been re-introduced, under-used staff are being redeployed, funding of bridging courses has been scrapped while all members who were abusing various types of leave, fiddling with pay sheets and attendance registers have been charged.

Civil servants, said Minister Mupfumira, would make 7,5 percent pension contribution to the Public Service Pension for the first time since dollarisation. “There was agreement to reduce the allowances of student teachers on teaching practice from $329 to $157 per month,” she said.

“It’s almost a full time employee’s salary and not viable but there will be need to consider bush allowances for those in rural areas. Government workers have not been paying pension since 2009 when everyone was getting a flat $100. Despite non-contribution by members, the government continued to pay out full pension benefits to members after termination but the situation has become unsustainable. A huge back log of commutations has accumulated.”

On private and trust school teachers who gobbled $72 million this year in salaries and allowances, Minister Mupfumira said they will no longer get anything from the government. “The position is that this is an unfair charge to public funds and these institutions are run on a commercial basis and should cater for their employment costs,” she said.

“A Public Service Pension Fund will also be established and it’s a process which begins in the New Year. The Ministry of Finance will be expediting that and members’ contributions made to pension funds would be invested to provide a sound and sustainable base for timely payment of the pension benefits.”

Over the past few years, the government has been battling to reduce its wage bill from the current 83 percent of its revenue. At this level, staff costs’ ratio to income is clearly unsustainable therefore it had to be rationalised for the government to remain with some money to finance economic revival initiatives.

Critics saw no possibility of the government containing its expenditure on wages without cutting jobs. The opposition, which attacked the government between July and August after some 25,000 workers lost their jobs on three months’ notice without any benefits, was already sharpening its criticism of the government anticipating job cuts which are naturally unpopular.

The government’s strategy should sadden them, but for the common person out there who wants their country to move forward, and for the civil servant who is already unable to survive adequately on his or her monthly salary, the creative rationalisation plan is a good one.

We applaud the approach, some of whose elements, Minister Mupfumira said were already being implemented. It should help reduce government expenditure and free up more resources to fund other pressing projects and programmes. The International Monetary Fund, which has been urging the government to reduce its wage bill, must be pleased with the strategy.

The government really had to take bold measures, making a few sacrifices that should happily get the economy on a stronger footing for everyone’s benefit.

Freezing of posts is one of the tough decisions for there are many gaps in the civil service after many left for so-called greener pastures during the hyper-inflation period. These are more pronounced in the health sector. This means more work for workers and we implore them to appreciate that they, like everyone else, have to sacrifice for the national good.

But we think civil servants will have no problem having to contribute to their own pensions as they used to prior to 2009. At the same time, they must be willing to pay for their own education as other workers elsewhere already do.

However, we commiserate with student teachers now that the government has more than halved their monthly allowances. This is a drastic cut that will leave many out of pocket. They must understand, however, that they will still be paid $157 per month and not many students on attachment elsewhere are paid so much, or anything at all.

It is also tough luck for teachers at private and trust schools who would now not enjoy government contribution to their salaries. This move should ordinarily see teachers in this sub-sector earning less in salaries.

We foresee administrators of the schools responding by increasing school fees for their teachers to maintain their salaries; therefore it is ultimately tough luck to the parent.

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