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Bulawayo City Council workers this week downed tools demanding a review of their salaries which they say are way below the Poverty Datum Line (PDL).

The least paid council employee earns a basic salary of $1 900 yet the PDL is at about $20 000 a month.

The workers said what council is paying can hardly meet the basics hence the urgent need to review the salaries upwards.

They accused the council management of not prioritising paying workers a living wage.

Government recently approved the council’s $16 billion 2021 budget which will see residents paying more for rates and other service charges.

The workers said there is no excuse for council’s failure to review their salaries upwards after Government approved the 2021 budget. Government also approved the council’s $551 million supplementary budget last December.

The workers have vowed not to return to work until their demands are met.

The strike has paralysed council services such as garbage collection, health services, burials and other such services.

The obtaining situation is life threatening given that the nation is grappling with the outbreak of Covid-19 which demands high standards of hygiene to contain it. We want at this juncture to implore the workers and city council management to find each other and resolve this dispute as soon as possible.

We appreciate the need for workers to be paid a living wage but this is determined by affordability.

The workers and council management must be very open and candid in their engagement so that together they establish what council can afford to pay.

We totally agree with the acting Town Clerk Mrs Sikhangele Zhou that the approval of the budget does not translate to increased revenue.

The council is collecting revenue under the new rates this month end and it is probably too early to expect salaries review based on the new rates.

What workers should also appreciate is that council is owed millions of dollars by ratepayers who have not been paying their bills and the situation could be worse with the increased rates.

The residents who could not afford the old rates are in a worse situation now and as already stated, revenue collection could be worse this year compared to previous years. We want to once again urge council management to engage the workers and explain the council position.

What is encouraging is that Mrs Zhou said the local authority management is in the process of engaging workers and as we have said, council should avail all the information regarding revenue collection.