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GOVERNMENT is concerned about the welfare of civil servants and will soon convene a National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC) meeting to review their salaries once consultations taking place within its structures are complete, a Cabinet Minister has said.

In an interview with New Ziana on Wednesday, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Professor Paul Mavima said the Government was already working on a framework where the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development was leading consultations regarding reviews of civil servants’ salaries.

“So, that consultation is taking place, it might take about a week or so, but once we have that framework and clear indicators of what is possible from the Government’s side, we then convene the NJNC, which will be a discussion between the representatives of the workers and the Government team,” he said.

He said the situation that the concerned parties were facing were speaking loudly about the need for a salary review so that Government workers were cushioned from the rampant price increases bedevilling the
economy.

Zimbabwe is grappling with soaring prices of basic commodities, which has drastically eroded civil servants’ salaries, which were hiked by 100 percent in March this year as the Government was striving to improve the
welfare of its workers.

The package included a review of the Covid-19 allowance, which was increased from US$200 to US$250 while teachers were also given an additional US$80 teaching allowance.

However, these efforts came to naught as the business community went into overdrive hiking prices, pegging them on the black market exchange rates.

There has been a significant increase in prices of basic commodities such as mealie-meal, sugar, bread, cooking oil among others over the past weeks, making life unbearable for civil servants and the nation at
large.

-New Ziana