A confederation of Zimbabwe’s public sector unions says the government’s latest pay offer is one rank and file employees can live with and have called off plans to go on strike.
Workers threatened to walk off the job unless the state raised wages to the equivalent of US$475 per month for the lowest paid. The Civil Service Apex Council says the increase is needed to keep up with crippling inflation.
“Through further negotiations and dialogue, we have achieved to make the government pay each and every civil servant the sum of 400 Zimbabwe dollars (US$45) as a once-off payment together with the salary of July, regardless of one’s grade,” the union said in a statement.
The union will continue talks with the government on another wage increase, which would take effect in August.
Soaring consumer prices, reflected in inflation which reached a decade-long high of 175.66% in June, have eroded incomes and compounded an economic crisis marked by the shortage of foreign currency, fuel and electricity, among other basics.
