19 percent pay hike for Zimbabwe Insurance workers

INSURANCE sector workers have received a 19 percent across-the-board pay rise backdated to January.
Insurance Employees' Association of Zimbabwe secretary-general Mr Moses Hunga yesterday said the pay hike would be applicable to all firms meeting the minimum wage requirement and those paying more than the minimum wage.
"The need to come up with an increment that cuts across all insurance sectors has been necessitated by the realisation that some employers have not been awarding increments for over two years now, arguing that they are in compliance with the required minimum wage for the sector," said Mr Hunga.
"This across-the-board increment basically means that the increment will apply to both union and non-union members.
"It will also ensure that individuals earning above the minimum wage, who are in the majority, will get a 19 percent increment."
Mr Hunga said workers in the insurance industry would receive a US$33 transport allowance monthly, while the NEC will be re-convening in June to negotiate for housing allowances.
He said the award came "just in time" to avoid the matter being dealt with by an arbitrator as the parties involved had earlier declared a stalemate.
Before the latest increment, the least paid employees in the insurance industry were earning US$210 a month, with the highest paid non-managerial employee earning a salary of US$513.
Insurance employers and workers have been feuding over pay increases, with the former arguing that they had no capacity to raise salaries due to constrained uptake of premiums in the economy.
However, the union demanded salary scales in line with the Poverty Datum Line.
The latest increment was set in motion by a 31 percent award to insurance employees in April last year.
An earlier stalemate in the negotiations had frozen the chances of new talks.
The insurance industry is on an apparent rebound, if a steady increase in demand for policies over the past year is anything to go by.