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Minister Prisca Mupfumira

Pamela Shumba, Senior Reporter
PUBLIC Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira has said Government will not review December pay dates as Treasury has done its best to make sure that its employees receive their salaries.

The Government this week released December pay dates for civil servants and those in the Health sector and the uniformed forces would be paid first on December 21 while the rest will receive their salaries after Christmas.

Teachers will be paid on December 28 while other civil servants will be paid on January 3.

Pensioners are expected to receive their dues on January 6.

After the dates were released, civil servants representatives requested Government to review the dates for them to be paid before Christmas.

However, Minister Mupfumira yesterday said there would be no changes in the pay dates.

She said Treasury had done its best to make sure that all civil servants  are paid.

“As Government we can’t promise what we can’t deliver. The dates that have been released for the December salaries will not change. We know that some of the civil servants will get their salaries after Christmas. It’s a regrettable development but there is nothing Treasury can do. We have to be realistic,” she said.

“As much as we want to honour our obligations, we need to be realistic and communicate the truth to workers.”

The Minister said she had fulfilled her promise to civil servants that they will be paid every month without fail.

She said Government was not planning to make any part payments to civil servants to cushion them during the Christmas holiday as they rejected such arrangements in June this year.

“There won’t be any part payments. We tried it before and there were complications. The civil servants rejected part payments and as Government we took note of that,” said Minister Mupfumira.

She commended Treasury for ensuring that Government workers were paid every month.

“Treasury has made great strides in improving pay dates for the civil servants throughout the year. We need to thank Treasury for that. We’re working under a depressed economy and this is making it difficult to mobilise adequate resources to pay salaries,” said Minister Mupfumira.

—@pamelashumba1.