Harare, ( New Ziana) -Civil servants have renewed pressure on the government to cushion them against rising costs of living, calling for the continued payment of the USD75 Presidential bonus extended to them in November last year, as a monthly Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) while negotiations over wages enter the first quarter of the year.
In a letter to the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Edgar Moyo, the Zimbabwe Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (ZCPSU) urged authorities to maintain the allowance across all sectors, warning that the current economic environment has left workers increasingly vulnerable.
The request follows a ZCPSU meeting held on Monday last week, where labour representatives resolved that the USD75 the COLA should remain in place, while first-quarter negotiations under the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC) are underway.
According to the ZCPSU, the allowance is critical in bridging the gap between stagnant wages and escalating household expenses.
In its submission, the association noted that public sector employees traditionally expect a cost of living adjustment at the beginning of each year.
However, no such adjustment was implemented at the start of last year, a development the union said has significantly eroded workers’ purchasing power.
The USD75 allowance, it argued, had therefore become a vital stopgap to compensate for income losses sustained over the past year.
The union further highlighted that employees are struggling to cope with the cost of basic necessities, including school fees, transport, food, and other essentials, particularly under wage levels that predate recent price increases.
Without interim relief, the ZCPSU warned that many workers might find it increasingly it difficult to meet their daily needs.
The ZCPSU also made it clear that its current focus is on securing immediate cost-of-living relief rather than engaging in broader structural processes such as job evaluation.
While not dismissing the importance of such reforms, the confederation said such processes are often prolonged and fraught with challenges, making them unsuitable as a short-term response to the economic pressures facing workers.
“In the meantime, we believe discussions should be centred on COLA rather than anchoring them on job evaluation,” the ZCPTU said, adding that the latter process is viewed by workers as flawed and insufficient to address urgent livelihood concerns.
It proposed that the USD75 allowance be allowed to stand until the conclusion of the first-quarter NJNC negotiations, at which point broader wage issues can be comprehensively addressed.
Copies of the submission were also forwarded to the Minister of Finance and the Chairman of the Public Service Commission.
The appeal places fresh focus on public sector remuneration at a time when cost-of-living pressures continue to dominate labour discourse, setting the stage for potentially pivotal negotiations between the government and its workers’ representatives in the coming weeks.
New Ziana
