Teachers Finally Receive December Pays

TEACHERS finally received their December salaries on Tuesday but union leaders were quick to caution the “untidy” payment schedule would likely delay their January pays if it persisted. 

Apex Council chairperson and Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) President, Richard Gundani confirmed this in an interview with RadioVop Tuesday afternoon.“The salaries for the education sector have been received today,” Gundani said. Teachers are the second batch of civil servants to receive their pay after government paid members of the uniformed forces earlier during the month with the rest made to wait for tax revenue to first trickle into government coffers.

Teachers Finally Receive December Pays

Pay for the rest of the civil servants is expected 5 January next year while dates for bonus payments for the entire public service remain unknown.Gundani said while there was general relief among the educators on finally being remunerated by their broke employer, there were fears within the beleaguered workforce the now inconsistent payment system by government will recur when it is time to receive their January pays.“This is the fear; we don’t want 2016 salaries to be further delayed because of this untidy situation that we have heard in 2015.
So we don’t want the carryover of this untidy situation in 2016," he said.The civil service pay farce has spotlighted on the current Zanu PF government’s apparent incapabilities to run the affairs of the country with the opposition demanding its resignation.

Meanwhile, teachers have raised the red flag over what they found to be irregular pension deductions from their December pays.Gundani said his office has been inundated with complaints from association members who feel the government unilaterally made abnormal deductions from their pays without consulting them.“The very worrying thing about the salaries was the deduction of pensions.

A lot of members in the education sector are very worried,” Gundani said.“There is a very strong query that these deductions are very high and they are demanding an explanation.”Civil servants have not been contributing towards pension since dollarisation started 2009. The deductions were introduced by Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa during his budget presentation.“Those deduction have been effected at a time when consultations have not been concluded. These are the issues that have been arisen,” Gundani said, without disclosing the exact figures being queried.