TEACHERS head back to work today amid poverty and a cloud of uncertainty over any further pay increases posed by the proposed labour law reforms, the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said yesterday.
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PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said morale was low among teachers as schools open today. Teachers were denied a chance to make extra income when the government banned holiday lessons and scrapped teacher incentives.
“The majority of Zimbabweans and teachers in particular have no money to pay school fees. Teachers were denied an opportunity to assist students so as to get a few dollars over the holidays. The government outlawed extra lessons,” Zhou said in a press statement.
“Schools are opening for the second term amid political paralysis, increasing liquidity crisis, erosion of teachers’ salaries, unilateral decision-making by Education ministry officials on a number of issues that need logical disputation and engagement with teacher unions, and the threat of labour law reform that moves the clock backward to the colonial Master and Servant Act.”
Zhou indicated that the proposed labour law reforms posed the greatest threat to the welfare of teachers.
“A proposed new labour reform threatens to resurrect the colonial Master and Servant Act, while the new Constitution in sections 199 to 203 reverses the labour gains granted in Section 65 and spells doom for civil servants who will continue to engage in collective begging as opposed to collective bargaining,” he said.
In his 2014 budget statement, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said it was necessary to review labour laws to ensure flexibility in the hiring and firing of workers, working hours as well as tying wage adjustments to the performance of the economy.
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The move has been widely condemned, with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions indicating that it would resort to street protests to force the government to dump the proposed reforms.
Zhou said the government should fulfil promises of non-monetary benefits and share ownership schemes for teachers to uplift their standards of living.
“PTUZ calls for the urgent fulfilment of non-monetary incentives and share ownership schemes by the government and meaningful labour reforms that would ensure collective bargaining in its true sense,” he said.
“There should be wide consultation with teachers before implementation of any education policy as in essence anything for teachers without teachers is against them. The current perception that intelligence resides at the ministry head office is as unfortunate as it is ill-conceived.”
