12 February 2022
Lindie Dube
The Zimbabwe Nurses Association, ZlNA, has threatened to down tools if the government does not revoke its suspension against Teachers.
The Nurses have had their share of a similar struggle with the government in the recent past.
Nurses experienced the torture and pains of reporting for duty on a daily basis and be given nothing in return. The Zimbabwean nurses faced this same dilemma.
ln 2018 Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care Constantino Chiwenga fired nurses for striking.
The nurses were fired for demanding better remuneration and improved working conditionings.
Instead of improving these conditions, the government opted to firing the nurses.
The same scenario is unraveling itself again in the case of teachers.
The Zimbabwe Nurses Association issued a statement where they stated that;
“On the 10th of February 2022, the Zimbabwe Nurses Association received with great shock the press statement by the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education advising the nation that all officials who allegedly “absented themselves from duty since the official opening of schools on 7 February 2022” had been suspended without pay for three (3) months.
Instead of instituting dialogue, the Ministry acted in a manner that is not only insensitive to the teachers but in any event unlawful as the suspension has no basis at law.
The plight of the teachers is the plight of every member in the Civil Service, it is no secret that the ordinary cost of living has gone significantly way above the reach of many and the prices are relatively now pegged in United States Dollars.
“Accordingly, the attitude taken by Government in response to such genuine concerns is, in our view, representative of the attitude it views the plight of all public employees.
To this end, we confirm that we stand in solidarity with the teaching profession and echo the grievances they have made to Government. Instead of using threatening tactics, the Government must engage in genuine dialogue and desist from making unilateral offers that do not address the grievances raised.”
“We further immediately revoke the unlawful suspensions issued out to teachers and invite not only the teaching profession, but the Civil Service at large, to the negotiating table to find a lasting solution.”
“Should it become clear that the Government intends to proceed with its unlawful positions, nurses in Zimbabwe will have to consider their position as we cannot watch our collegues being punished for grievances that we all share”
Teachers unions say the government has been playing mind games with them, pretending to have interests of the teaching profession at heart, yet the same government continues pay peanuts.
Most teachers decided to stay at home as schools opened on the 7th of February to protest salaries of about US$100 a month. Teachers are demanding that their pay be restored to pretty 2018 salaries when it was pegged at US$540 per month.
In response to the demands, the government has offered a 20% pay increase, payment of part of the teachers’ salaries in U.S. dollars, and subsidies on the purchases of cars and houses.
When the teachers rejected the, the government threatened to stop the salaries of those not reporting for duty and suspended the lot for three months.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) issued a press release stating that;
“What is more worrying is that the government wakes up and suspends workers without following due process. The laws of this country are very clear and of all institutions, the government ought to know better.
The ZCTU gives full support to the teachers because they are fighting a genuine cause. The government should take responsibility for downgrading a once noble cause profession, which was the envy of many. Teachers used to venerated in societyt but now have become the laughing stock of the community….
We need to restore the dignity of both the teachers and the classrooms.”
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