Civil servants strike hangs in balance

The drive by Apex Council - the civil servants' umbrella body - to coalesce its forces and call for a nationwide industrial action hit a snag on Tuesday after its executive members absconded the decisive meeting where they were supposed to finalise the plan. The meeting was aborted due to lack of a quorum.

"The Apex Council meeting was aborted because there was no quorum," Zimbabwe Teachers' Union (Zimta) chief executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu said.  

They are yet to be advised by the (organising) committee when they are likely to reconvene.

The civil servants have since last year been threatening to down tools citing, among other grievances, the late payment of the 2014 bonuses, late submission of union dues, lack of action on non-monetary benefits, delayed establishment of the Public Service Collective Bargaining Council and the 2015 position paper on salaries and conditions of service for government workers.

Apex Council team leader Richard Gundane, who is also Zimta national president, had earlier indicated that the date of the industrial action would be announced in due course.

A fully constituted Apex Council met on January 8 and decided to embark on a strike although no date was proposed then.