Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions calls urgent meeting of Tripartite Negotiating Forum

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the country’s largest labour federation, has called for an urgent meeting of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum to discuss the current economic situation in the country and the erosion of workers’ salaries.

The TNF brings together government, business and labour.

In a statement today, acting ZCTU president Florence Taruvinga said the meeting was necessary because the current salaries cannot sustain workers’ families or enable them to go to work.

Prices have rocketed over the past few weeks after the country liberalised its exchange rate with inflation going up to 97.85 percent in May.

Businesses are pegging their prices on the United States dollar but the local RTGS dollar continues to fall on a daily basis.

Today it was pegged at 6.12 to the greenback on the official interbank market, four cents down from yesterday.

It was, however, pegged at 9.8 on the black-market, one cent down from yesterday but was down at 10.63 on the Old Mutual Implied Rate which is used by investors and those who want to move out large sums of money at any cost.

Business is reported to favour a 10:1 exchange rate but this will mean an even greater erosion of workers’ salaries because while prices are rising every day, sometimes twice a day, workers’ salaries are not be adjusted appropriately.

Former Finance Minister Tendai Bit said the exchange rate will be down to 15:1 by August.

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