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Zimbabwe state workers mull actions against unpaid salaries

Xinhua, July 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

Zimbabwe state workers, mostly teachers and nurses are mulling actions after government failed to pay them their June salaries and instead offered them an advance salary of 100 U.S. dollars for transport.

The Apex council, a body that represents all civil servants unions met on Friday to discuss the way forward and indicated that they had resolved to take action starting July 5.

However, Apex council team leader Cecilia Alexander did not reveal the nature of the action the state workers would take, saying this would be revealed Saturday.

"We have resolved to meet civil servants tomorrow (Saturday) and we have also resolved to take action starting on Tuesday next week but the action has not yet been specified. It will be determined after the meeting with civil servants," Alexander told Xinhua.

She said the workers were demanding that government pays them their June salaries as soon as possible, after government deferred the salaries for teachers to July 7 and for nurses to July 14.

Teachers form the bulk of Zimbabwe's civil servants and it is feared a strike would deal a major blow to the country's struggling education sector, particularly primary and secondary schools that are due for their end of term examinations.

The cash-strapped Zimbabwe government has failed to pay its workers on time since last year due to acute cash flow challenges.

The government spends at least 80 percent of the national budget on civil servants salaries, a development that government has acknowledged as unsustainable and now intends to cut the wage bill to 40 percent. Endit