FULL TEXT: United Freedom Party Workers' Day statement

As the world marks Workers Day, also known as May Day, the United Freedom Party (UFP) mourns the position of the Zimbabwean worker saying strongly that there is nothing to celebrate given the conditions they have to endure in the last two decades.

There is no pride in working anymore because of the peanuts their earnings have been reduced to peanuts by the ever-rising inflation. The government is the biggest employer and its workers are paid in RTGS, just like employees in most companies. According to the latest figures, the bread basket for a family of six is currently pegged at $92 000, which translates to an average of US$250, using the parallel market rate.

However, very few earn this much in Zimbabwe. Our pensioners are perhaps the hardest hit. After labouring for decades and contributing towards different retirement plans, their investments have come to naught. The payouts they are currently receiving are a mockery of the time they spent in productive employment. One would hope that at least they would enjoy during their retirement.

Meanwhile, most schools have increased their fees drastically starting this second term. This means education will now be a preserve of the elite as the ordinary worker cannot afford to send children to school.

Rentals have to be paid in US dollars, which the worker cannot access from the formal system. Instead, they have to get the greenback from the parallel market, whose rates are going up everyday.

Fuel prices have been going up of late causing a spiral effect on prices of basic commodities and services. This has seen prices of food stuffs, hospital fees and medicines among other basics shooting through the roof. It is the ordinary worker who bears the brunt of these increases, implying that there is nothing to celebrate on Workers Day.

The ever-rising exchange rate has pauperised the Zimbabwean worker. The cost of commuting to work has also risen as transporters react to fuel price hikes by passing the cost onto the commuter. It is the same salary that has to fund these expenses. For the worker, buying new clothing for themselves and their families has become a luxury in the face of other compelling needs.

What is disturbing is the opulence in which the corrupt live as they oil their lives with the proceeds of graft at the expense of the national economy and ordinary citizens and workers who toil day in, day out, but get peanuts at the end of the day.

The systematic destruction of industry over the years pushed many into the informal sector after losing their jobs. The thrust going forward must be making sure the economy is made formal and everything else follows.

Prospects of getting employed for school leavers are getting slimmer and slimmer as jobs have become scarce.

It is in the light of all the above that the UFP is saying there is nothing to celebrate about Workers Day. Generally, the Zimbabwean workers are suffering as they have been pauperised by the state of the economy.