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Water boards give govt 14 days to effect pay hike

Employees of the country’s five water boards have given government a 14-day ultimatum to offer them an average 20 percent pay raise or face unspecified consequences.

The development comes after Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe announced in Parliament that an increment for statutory corporations (SCs) or parastatals would not be implemented owing to a poor economic situation in the country.MZUZU-WATER-BOARD

Through a letter reference number C1/01/08/02 dated June 14 2016 circulated to all board chairpersons and chief executives of parastatals, comptroller of Statutory Corporations Zangazanga Chikhosi advised the organisations to hold their proposed salary increment in the 2016/17 financial year.

Water Employees Trade Union of Malawi (Wetum) president Tony Chitimatima Chiphwanya said they believe government would not allow the industrial dispute to reach a level where the workers take drastic actions.

He said while appreciating government’s justification for a pay hike freeze, notably economic challenges facing the country, the union is of the view that it is unfair to compare water boards with other statutory corporations because their nature of businesses was different.

Said Chiphwanya: “We are aware of their latest communication, but we are saying the economy is also in a bad shape such that our current salaries cannot sustain us. We are bleeding and further postponing this would make things worse.”

However, he could not specify the planned action in case their demands are not met.

Said Chiphwanya: “We believe in dialogue and we will continue to engage them until something happens.”

In an interview, Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) chief executive Alfonso Chikuni said they would re-engage the union on what government had proposed during their meeting held last week.

He said government unfroze an increment for junior staff, but the union leadership wanted the increment to apply across the board.

Said Chikuni: “We were the first ones to engage government on increment freeze. We seemed to reach an agreement with them, but when we communicated with our members here, they refused and we will go back to them possibly this week for more talks.”

Besides LWB, other suppliers are Blantyre Water Board (BWB), Northern Region Water Board (NRWB), Central Region Water Board (CRWB) and Southern Region Water Board (SRWB).

Treasury spokesperson Nations Msowoya yesterday said the matter was being handled by the Department of Statutory Corporations and the water boards’ management.

On the other hand, Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) executive director John Kapito, who is also board chairperson of SRWB, said the consumer rights body was reviewing its position on the issue and would make a statement at an opportune time.

In the 2016/17 National Budget, Treasury proposed a 15 percent salary increment for lowly ranked civil servants, an offer Civil Servants Trade Union (CSTU) and Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) expressed reservations with.

In the same budget, government also announced a hiring freeze except for 10 500 primary school teachers and 447 secondary school teachers who were not recruited in the financial year ended June 30 2016.

Last week, public tax collector Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) communicated to its staff that they will not be given a pay hike until the economic situation improves as earlier communicated by government.

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