Maravi

(HERALD) City to lay off 4 000

COMMENT - 650 is not 4,000. The neoliberals want to destroy government, and firing 4,000 city workers in the capital is a good place to start. Reducing the size of government so their corporate buddies can take over (or not) is what they do. This is the MDC at work.

City to lay off 4 000
By Michael Chideme

HARARE City Council is overstaffed by more than 4 000 employees and is considering retrenching the excess labour, Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda has said. About 650 workers who were on council’s payroll have already been dismissed after they failed to turn up for the manpower audit held three months ago, giving credence to reports that the city had many ghost workers.

“The human resources audit indicates that we have a bloated structure,” said Mr Masunda in an interview yesterday.

The city employs in excess of 10 000 workers who chew up 70 percent of revenue in salaries and allowances.

The city’s monthly staff costs are believed to be about US$7, 5 million against revenue of around US$10 million.

If it retrenches the more than 4 000 workers, council can reduce its salary bill by almost half.

Management pay cheques gobble more than 5 percent of the total wage bill while allowances for workers range from 115 percent to 145 percent of gross monthly salaries.

Critical staff like medical doctors and engineers get the highest allowances.

Mr Masunda said the manpower audit revealed that the city could be run by about 6 000 employees.

“We have enlisted the World Bank to validate the numbers. We have to have the right size. The study that was conducted says the city could be run best by not more than 6 000 people,” he said.

Mr Masunda blamed the bloated figures on political interference, saying politicians gave directives for employment of “their relatives and cronies”.

“The same politicians that are calling the shots contributed (to the overstaffing),” he said.

The mayor said council would negotiate with those in management grades one to four who have individual contracts on retrenchment.

For those in grades five to 16, council would negotiate with their representative trade unions.

Council is presently not replacing employees who retire or die unless there are no special skills within the local authority to replace them.

“We have a case of the 650 employees who were on our payroll who failed to turn up at their respective job stations during the manpower audit.

“I have directed that they be struck off the payroll,” Mr Masunda said.

The Government recently ordered council to stop recruiting new workers until it met the approved 30 to 70 percent employment costs to service provision ratio.

Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo, said any recruitment had to be sanctioned by his ministry.

Labels: HARARE CITY COUNCIL, JOBLOSSES, MUCHADEYI MASUNDA, NEOLIBERALISM

posted by MrK @ 3:31 PM