Teachers dig-in on strike.
AMALGAMATED Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz) on Tuesday dug in insisting teachers would continue on strike until their United States-dollar salaries are restored.
In a communique, Artuz said the meeting held by the union and Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister Paul Mavhima and Primary and Secondary Education minister Cain Mathema had yielded nothing.
The two ministers reportedly said they had no capacity to respond to teachers’ demands, adding they would submit demands made by the educators for discussion in the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Artuz said their members would not report back for duty until salary disputes were resolved.
“As Artuz, we have clearly stated to the ministers that the only incentive to take us back to the classroom is restoration of the US$520 salary,” Artuz said.
“To date, teachers are earning just over 17 percent of what constitutes the poverty datum line, which is set at ZWL17 000 by government,” Artuz noted.
Mavhima is reportedly unaware of how much education workers earn.
“We were surprised to note that Mavhima is not even aware of how much a teacher is earning: This is the highest level of ignorance and incompetence by an incumbent minister, who commands hundreds of thousands of government workers,” the association added.
The two ministers allegedly said they did not have the capacity to respond to teachers’ demands, adding they would submit the demands for discussion in the Cabinet meeting on October 6.
Further, Artuz spokesperson Nation Mudzitirwa said Mavhima allegedly accused the union of being a political movement.
“As Artuz, we are further saddened by Mavhima’s utterances during the meeting of misconstruing us as a political entity, yet we clearly represent the genuine grievances of teachers,” he also said.
“Such level of thinking by a Labour minister is of an agenda of trying to kill trade unionism and continue to oppress the hard working teachers,” Mudzitirwa noted.
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