Teachers unpaid for 4 months

SOME government teachers have not received their salaries since January, with no clear explanation from the government. The teachers, most of them qualified, say they have been working since first term and have now begun a new term with no word from their employer, the Civil Service Commission.Teachers who spoke to The Chronicle say they were recruited into the system through proper channels and have confirmation letters from the CSC.

Hundreds of Early Childhood Development (ECD) teachers, relief teachers and "prodigal" teachers who left service before being rehired are among those that have not received payment since January.

"We received confirmation letters from the Civil Service Commission to start work in January, but for the whole term we never received any salary and there hasn't been any communication," said a disgruntled teacher from Gwanda.

Some of the affected teachers say they have been receiving blank pay slips without getting any deposits into their bank accounts.

Morale is rock bottom for the teachers.

"I'm overborrowed," said another teacher from Filabusi. "You live in hope that maybe next pay day something will happen, but they come and go. No-one is saying what's going on."

Public Service and Social Welfare deputy minister Tapiwa Matangaidze said they were working on solving the problem. "What I can say is that a technical committee is looking into the issues, it's being addressed. As I speak, they are in a meeting seized with that matter and that of Trust schools," said Matangaidze.

He, however, could not reveal the number of teachers affected.

Progressive Teachers Union President Takavafira Zhou said 24 teachers in their union had lodged complaints after failing to receive their pay.

"As PTUZ, we've 24 members whose complaints we have lodged with the Civil Service Commission.

We encourage the Civil Service Commission to deal with this issue with urgency because it's posing a challenge to our teachers who are struggling to survive," said Zhou.

"They have to pay rentals and buy food, among other basic needs, and it's unfair to them."

Zhou blamed the bureaucracy for the delays in processing of documents.

"The problem we have is that letters move slowly, one has to send it through the headmaster, district, province and to the national offices. The movement is so slow that we suggest that they digitalise, it's faster that way," said Zhou.

Last year, the government removed some 3,000 teachers from the payroll because they were not present at their work stations when a personnel head-count was conducted. The move caused chaos, with many affected teachers failing to access their pay. Some said they were on study leave, sick leave, maternity leave while others were on official business after being cleared by headmasters.

The physical count of teachers and other employees was meant to remove ghost workers from the payroll.