- HCC tells employees they cannot afford to implement government-gazetted minimum wage of ZWL2 549.74
- HCC workers reject employer application for salaries review exemption say top managers’ obscene salaries and holidaying abroad lifestyles show city fathers are insincere.
- Unions say workers are currently wallowing in poverty, way below Poverty Datum Line set at ZWL$6 400.
THE Harare City Council (HCC) Employee Party (EP), a group of unions concerned with the welfare of council employees, has written to the Employment Council (EC) for Harare Municipal Undertaking (HMU) rejecting a request by city authorities to suspend the periodical reviewing of council employees’ salaries.
The directive to that effect was communicated to all employers through Statutory Instrument (SI) 81 – including HCC – by goverment on March 27 this year.
In their letter of exemption dated April 18 (which Zim Morning Post is in possession of), city authorities pleaded incapacity to pay the government SI-gazetted minimum wage of ZWL2 549.74, citing the COVID-19 lockdown as the reason.
The city authorities said the non-payment of rates by both residents and business had left them in an unenviable position.
HCC, whose lowest paid worker takes home ZWL1 500, told the EC for HMU that they would only be in a position to implement the government-gazetted minimum wage after the COVID-19 lockdown is lifted, when it is expected that revenue collection would have improved.
But the HCC Employee Party, in its counter draft letter to the EC for HMU, which also Zim Morning Post is in possession of, would have none of it.
“The Employee Party wishes to register its objection to the application for exemption filed by the employer on payment of the prescribed minimum wage in terms of SI 81 of 2020,” said the four HCC unions in their draft application to the EC for HMU, which they said would be formally submitted after the COVID-19 lockdown is lifted.
The unions also denigrated HCC’s application, saying the municipality had a legal obligation to oblige.
“Cognisant to the high inflationary environment we are living in, which now stands at 926 percent, the government-gazetted SI 81 of 2020 to cushion workers from the galloping prices binds the City of Harare to comply,” the unions added.
In their draft application to the EC of HMU, the unions also said the underlying economic conditions in the country had dealt a cruel blow on the worker.
“The Poverty Datum Line (PDL) is further increasing against a stagnant salary, therefore, eroding the purchasing power of employees’ salaries. The PDL currently stands at ZW$6 400, according to ZimSats, for a family of five,” the unions said.
Zim Morning Post spoke with Cosmas Bungu, one the signatories to the EC of HMU’s draft letter, inquiring on the HCC’s capacity to pay.
“Like we said in our draft letter to the EC for HMU, it is not correct to state that the employer cannot afford paying the gazetted minimum wage. HCC, despite getting revenue through payment of rates and water, now has many sources of income which can sustain a minimum wage. For example, income from private businesses like City Parking, Crusher Station, Harare Meats where they can sell meat from cattle as well as cash from the selling of stands are sufficient to ensure that they fulfil their obligation to employees,” he said.
“The problem at HCC is corruption at the top – beginning with the city fathers. We also have a top management which loves ostentation; all the trappings of good living, obscene salaries and holidaying abroad while workers wallow in their vomit. That is unacceptable,” Bungu said.
Efforts to get comment from HCC spokesperson, Michael Chideme did not succeed as his cellphone was unreachable at the time of publication.