Civil servants August pay dates out

THE Government has announced civil servants' pay dates for this month, underlying its commitment to timeously fulfil its salary obligations to its workers.

According to the payment schedule, members of the Zimbabwe National Army and Air Force of Zimbabwe will be paid on August 23. Those in the health sector will receive their salaries on August 26, while the police and the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services will be paid on August 30.

The Zimbabwe Nurses' Association recently appealed to the Government to recognise its members as belonging to the essential services sector because of the nature of their job, hence the need to pay them earlier.

After those in the health sector and the security forces have been paid, next to receive their salaries will be teachers on September 2. The rest of the civil servants will be paid on September 5 while pensioners will receive their payments on September 9.

The Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Prisca Mupfumira said it was a matter of time before all the civil servants were paid within the month worked as the Government's strategies to raise money start paying dividends.

"It is a fact that we have revenue challenges but as promised, we have managed to bring forward the pay dates for most of the workers except for teachers who received their July salaries on August 2 and for this month they will be paid on September 2," she said.

"Just as said by President Mugabe during the Heroes' Day commemorations that mechanisms are being developed to ensure workers get their salaries on the traditional pay dates, we are working day and night to improve and meet this target.

"We thank Treasury for working to ensure these improvements come. September dates will be availed as soon as modalities are in place because we want the workers, whom we treasure so much, to concentrate on service delivery."

Minister Mupfumira added: "We will also continue engaging the workers, through the official channels, to update each other on the developments that will be taking place. They have every right to know what will be happening and National Joint Negotiating Council meetings will be held constantly."

Apex Council president Mrs Cecilia Alexander said although they have noted some stability when it comes to their pay dates, they were worried that they overlapped into the next month.

"There has been some steady improvement and in other sectors the Government has maintained the dates as they had last month," she said. Mrs Alexander implored the Government to continue working on improving on the pay dates.

"So we're calling on the powers that be to take this matter seriously. And it was our hope that in August the situation would have normalised. But we've realised that we've not yet achieved normalcy and we will continue to engage," said Mrs Alexander.

A few weeks ago, President Mugabe appealed to civil servants to be patient, saying the country was faced with an array of challenges that include illegal sanctions, drought as well as the use of the multi-currency system, mainly the US dollar that the country had little control over.

He said the Government would strive to ensure that the problem of delays in salary payments was addressed.