Teachers’ unions and State Universities workers unions have given the government notice of their intention to strike over salaries which they want to be restored to where they were in 2018 when they were paid about USD540.
Their notice comes when the government has approved a 200% hike in university fees, which will result in students at State universities forking out between ZW$25 000 and ZW$40 000 per semester, up from ZW$9 000.
Salary negotiations between workers and the government commenced last week but there was an impasse after workers rejected the proposal which the government had tabled.
In a letter to the government, Alois Muzvuwe and Readyforward Dube, the ZISUUA and ZUAWU representatives said:
This is a 14-day notice of intention to embark on a strike by the Zimbabwe Universities and Allied Workers Union (ZUAWU) and the Zimbabwe State Universities Union of Academics (ZISUUA), hereby referred to as the Zimbabwe State Universities Joint Council, on behalf of all State universities’ workers.
The employees demand that the employer makes urgent steps to attain the regional level salary scales as per the agreements of 2010.
The universities employees’ notice comes after the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz) released a statement yesterday inviting citizens to join them in their nationwide strike scheduled for March 22 dubbed #SaveOurEducationZw.Artuz accuses the government of ignoring its “detailed Education in Crisis Report” which cited “urgent issues that need to be attended to and long-term structural deficiencies which have to be resolved.”Schools reopened Monday with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education saying there was a high teacher and learner turnout compared to that of last year.More: NewsDay
