Lecturers take labour action, work only two days a week

Zimbabwean lecturers working at polytechnics, teachers’ colleges and industrial training colleges have resolved to report for duty for only two days a week because of their low salaries.

In addition, university lecturers are expected to announce the course of action they will take after giving a two-week strike notice, which has since lapsed.

The latest developments come at a time when the government has started vaccinating lecturers against COVID-19, with students expected to be next in line.

Institutions of higher learning in Zimbabwe resumed face-to-face lectures recently, following learning disruptions caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 since 2020.

Since last year, lecturers have been agitating for improved conditions of service but, as learning institutions remained closed as part of measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the government delayed taking action to deal with their grievances.

Reduced work hours

Following the resumption of face-to-face learning, lecturers at polytechnics, teachers’ colleges and industrial training colleges said that, from 12 April, they will be working for two days a week.

They said the action does not amount to a strike as they wanted to go to work but did not have the means to do so. This was because the government was not improving their conditions of service.

At the moment, the lecturers are paid an equivalent of about US$200 a month, but they want the lowest-paid government worker in the education sector to be paid at least US$520.

The Zimbabwe government pays its workers in local currency, but most services in the country are charged in US dollars.

David Dzatsunga, the president of the College Lecturers Association of Zimbabwe, said what they are being paid is only adequate to report for duty twice a week.

“The lecturers are earning the same as teachers, which is around US$200,” said Dzatsunga.

“This is not a strike. The workers want to go to work every day, but the employer must capacitate the workers,” he added.

He said the exact days on which individual lecturers will report for duty will be decided at institutional level.

“It’s a case of saying some come [to work] on Monday and Tuesday and some come on this day. People sit down at institutional level and say there should be people at work but we can’t all come on the same day.

“We do not wish for workers to go on like this. People need civil service. We hope the government addresses this as a matter of agency. At the moment the employer has not responded,” said Dzatsunga.

An urgent matter

In a notice sent to the Public Service Commission, the Zimbabwe Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (ZCPSTU), the lecturers’ umbrella representative body, said a 25% increase on individuals’ current earnings, which the government implemented from 1 April, was insufficient to allow civil servants to execute their duties.

It said the resolution was informed by the fact that they were “languishing in acute poverty”.

The union said its members should not be harassed as a result of the incapacitation but did not state how it would respond, should that happen.

“[T]he decision made by the workers that they will not be able to report for duty [on] all the week’s working days is not by choice but as a result of prevailing circumstances,” it stated.

“To this end, as ZCPSTU, we call upon your office to respect this decision by not punishing any member who happens to be a victim of incapacitation. Instead, we appeal for your indulgence that the issue is addressed with the urgency it deserves.”

Givewell Munyaradzi, the secretary-general of the Zimbabwe State Universities Union of Academics (ZISUUA), said university lecturers will come up with their own positions.

The Zimbabwe State Universities Joint Council, encompassing the Zimbabwe Universities and Allied Workers Union (ZUAWU) and the Zimbabwe State Universities Union of Academics (ZISUUA) earlier issued the 14-day notice of intention to embark on a strike on behalf of all state universities’ workers.

The letter by ZISUUA and ZUAWU representatives stated: “The employees demand that the employer [takes] urgent steps to attain the regional level salary scales as per the agreements of 2010.”