Maravi

‘FFTUZ won’t accept less than K2m pay for govt workers’

‘FFTUZ won’t accept less than K2m pay for govt workers’
Written by Kelvin Tembo
Monday, January 05, 2009 6:14:16 PM

FEDERATION of Free Trade Unions in Zambia (FFTUZ) vice-president Charles Phiri has said unions will not accept anything less than K2 million for the least paid government employee this year.

And Phiri said no money should be put aside for personal emoluments for constitutional office holders in this year’s budget. In an interview, Phiri said it was not possible for civil servants to survive on less than K2 million in a month especially in Lusaka.

“Our overall expectation is that no government worker should earn less than K2 million, we will not accept anything below that, whatever the percentage that will be,” he said.

He said according to the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR)’s food basket, a family of six in Lusaka needed not less than K1.8 million per month to survive.

Phiri called on FFTUZ affiliates to ensure that they effectively bargained for improved conditions of service for the benefit of their workers during negotiations this year.

And Phiri said constitutional office holders had given themselves enough increments last year.

“We will not expect any personal emoluments to be given in this year’s budget,” Phiri said.

He also advised the Ministry of Education Health to cut down on workshops especially those relating to HIV and AIDS and capacity building.

“It is too much of these workshops where people are being given huge sums of money in terms of sitting allowances when results are not being seen,” said Phiri. “People are spending weeks evaluating programmes which are not yielding any results.”

Labels: CHARLES PHIRI, CIVIL SERVANTS, FFTUZ, MINIMUM WAGE

posted by MrK @ 6:15 PM