The Sunday Mail
David Dzatsunga
The civil service Apex Council, on behalf all Government workers as represented by its member unions and associations, is happy to unite all workers in commemorating Workers Day – our day – this Tuesday.
This, indeed, will be the day to look back at the rough road we have travelled, our victories and our challenges. It is our clarion call as the Apex Council that there has never been a greater need than now for workers in Zimbabwe to unite.
It is time to shun the ugly spectre of splintering that has seen us pointing swords at one another instead of fighting the neo-liberal onslaught that is threatening to reverse our hard-earned gains.
In the recent past, we have seen splits in our main labour bodies over petty and often selfish ends.
This has benefited capitalists who are historical enemies of workers in our great country.
Our capacity to organise for effective action has been diminished by our divisions as we have tended to allow party political hawks to manipulate and dilute our ideological purity and commitment to the cause of the poor and needy who look to us for principled leadership.
As Government workers organised under the Apex Council, we have always been fighting for the right to collective bargaining.
We have pushed hard for the harmonisation of our labour law and thus the amendment of the Public Service Act so that it is in sync with Section 65 of our Constitution and the ILO Conventions that our Government long ratified.
We are deeply concerned and pained that Government is delaying amendments to the Public Service Act and we state without prevarication that a right delayed is a right denied.
We grudgingly appreciate the development where Cabinet has now passed the principles to amend the Public Service Act and call upon Government to speed up the remainder of the process.
The absence of a collective bargaining council for the civil service is neither good for the employer nor for the workers.
It can only portend discord in settling labour disputes and lead to wildcat strikes that are not guided by any agreed process to dispute resolution.
As civil servants, we have witnessed a certain unilateralism in the withdrawal/suspension of schoolteachers’ vacation leave, much against the law and natural justice.
The civil service rationalisation exercise has gone ahead without consultation and workers have had to speculate as to its letter and spirit.
We believe the doctors and nurses strike would have been handled better if the law was clear and agreed upon. It should concern Government, as it obviously does the workers, that civil servants have not had a salary increment since year the 2013. This is so in spite of a 2014 agreement to bring salaries of the lowest paid workers to PDL level.
Government must not take the workers’ patience for granted and should make this issue a priority.
It is our fervent hope as Apex Council that the new dispensation will see Government change its attitude towards how it handles the welfare of its workers.
Mr David Dzatsunga is the Apex Council secretary. He prepared the statement for The Sunday Mail
