No solution yet on civil servants’ salaries

Government and civil servants’ representatives met for almost the entire day yesterday but failed to reach a solution on new salaries for civil servants. Negotiations will continue on Monday.

Reports say the government told civil servants’ representatives that it could not up its offer made on Wednesday under which the lowest paid civil servant will get US$375 a month because it could not sustain salary increases of more than US$13 million a month.

The current monthly wage bill is reported to be US$142 million and is expected to go up to US$155million after the increases.

Salaries presently consume more than 70 percent of the government budget; something that the International Monetary Fund says must be addressed. The IMF wants salaries to consume not more than 30 percent of the budget.

Zimbabwe is currently working with the IMF’s Staff Monitored Programme. Its programme, which started in April last year, was extended by six months this year.

Civil servants want the minimum salary to be increased to US$543 a month to match the current poverty datum line.

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