CSTU, government open discussions

The Civil Service Trade Union (CSTU) and government have opened discussions on the CSTU petition whose ultimatum elapsed at the weekend to reach a consensus on the workers’ demands for salary increments and review of allowances.

CSTU issued a petition to the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) on March 27, 2014, a development that did not please the Government Negotiating Team (GNT) which accused the union of going behind its back and undermining its authority.

But CSTU secretary general Madalitso Njolomole yesterday said discussions had started on an amicable footing following the misunderstanding which took place last week at the instigation of the union.

“We held discussions with OPC and we are hoping the discussions with GNT will be concluded by Thursday or Friday. The issues are being tackled on an individual basis and we are meeting respective officials responsible for responding to our queries,” Njolomole said.

Secretary for the GNT Sam Madula, who is also principal secretary for the Department for Human Resource Management, told The Nation last week that the manner in which CSTU presented its petition had made the team reluctant to meet with the union because their petition had come before the GNT had presented their grievances and recommendations to OPC.

Madula had earlier asked the union to continue negotiations with OPC because the petition had deemed the GNT irrelevant in the negotiations between government and civil servants.

In the petition, CSTU demanded implementation of the long overdue salary and a speedy review of the disparities of salaries in the civil service.

The seven-point petition also condemned the theft of government resources dubbed Cashgate for paralysing government operations and demanded that government should immediately negotiate with contractors of government projects which have stalled to minimise losses of taxpayers’ money.