Maravi

Govt owes teachers K50bn in unpaid allowances – SESTUZ

Govt owes teachers K50bn in unpaid allowances – SESTUZ
Written by Gillian Namungala
Monday, November 24, 2008 10:09:26 AM

SECONDARY School Teachers Union of Zambia (SESTUZ) has said the government owes teachers over K50 billion in unpaid housing allowances countrywide.

And SESTUZ urged the government to close up the gap in salaries between constitutional office holders and other public service workers.

In an interview, SESTUZ general secretary Emmanuel Zulu said the government should settle the over K50 billion outstanding housing allowances that it owes teachers.

Zulu said teachers had not been paid housing allowance from as far back as 2005 and that the government only released K8 billion that has since been disbursed to Copperbelt, Lusaka and North Western provinces.

"Out of the K8 billion, K5 billion has been sent to Copperbelt, K1 billion to Lusaka and K2 billion to North Western Province," he said.

However, Zulu said the government had promised to settle the debt soon.

And Zulu said much as the constitutional office holders had accepted the 15 per cent salary increment awarded to public service workers, the gap between the two had widened.

"As SESTUZ we want to see a situation where the gap between us is closing up not widening," Zulu said. " To them 15 per cent is on top of the already high salaries of K5,000,000 and for teachers it's on a low salary of K800,000 which should not be the case."

Zulu said SESTUZ wanted to see a situation where a teacher's salary could enable one to meet their various obligations.

Labels: EMMANUEL ZULU, SALARIES, SESTUZ, TEACHERS

posted by MrK @ 10:11 AM