By Alois Vinga
PROGRESSIVE Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou says current and former teachers are owed a whopping US$2.5 billion in arrears arising from underpaid terminal benefits and unilateral salary cuts by government.
He described this as wage theft.
In a statement, Zhou said the arrears emanated from details revealed by the Auditor General’s office.
The union leader said Auditor General, Milred Chiri’s reports for 2018 and 2019 pointed out that government failed to collect, cumulatively, US$4.5 million from teachers in the form of revenue from departmental surcharges, treasury orders, penalties and fines dating from 2009.
The shortcomings were attributed to ineffective measures put in place by the finance ministry to monitor revenue collection and debt recovery system.
By Staff Reporter
PROGRESSIVE Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou has called upon Zimbabwean workers not to relent in their push for improved wages by their employers.
In a statement to mark the commemoration of Workers Day Saturday, the union leader said Zimbabwean workers were mourning the “fall” of their wages as opposed to celebrating.
“Sadly, on such a day, workers in Zimbabwe are mourning the fall of their salaries and working conditions from grace to grass with monotonous regularity.
“Yet even in this agony, it is prudent to organise, keep on knocking and clamouring for monumental labour justice as opposed to gvt callousness and injustice.
By Bulawayo Correspondent
PROGRESSIVE Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) has challenged government to establish an inclusive Covid-19 schools’ assessment taskforce before the re- opening of schools for 2021.
The teachers’ representative group says it has it on good authority that government will be announcing new schools opening dates at the end of this month.
In an interview with NewZimbabwe.com, PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said teachers are ready for schools opening but are worried about the lack of preparedness on the part of the government.
“A taskforce comprising teacher unions and ministries of education and health officials must be put in place to carry a Covid-19 risk assessment in schools and the levels of preparedness by schools for opening,” said Zhou.