By Daniel Itai – The Zimbabwe Daily
Harare Zimbabwe – Some teachers Unions in Zimbabwe have slammed at the proposed US$36 COVID-19 allowance by the government which will take effect this month.
The allowance which is expected to last for three months has been viewed as a joke by Unions such as the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) and the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ).
“Issues of COVID-19 allowances and salary issues are separate issues as such, the government must not act as if COVID-19 allowances are a form of a salary.
Any poor citizen qualifies for COVID-19 allowances and teachers fall in that bracket, the only biggest question is that how could the government limit the allowance to three months only while COVID-19 has spanned for more than four months now and it is still going on,” said Nation Mudzitirwa, (ARTUZ)’s national spokesperson.
Dr. Takavafira Zhou, chairperson of PTUZ also lambasted at the proposed COVID-19 allowance, “the US$36 grant falls far short of teachers’ expectations given their qualifications and responsibilities, worse still it is a one armed banditry offer without proper engagement and that’s unacceptable.
What teachers want is the restoration of their salary’s purchasing power parity or payment of US$550 that teachers used to earn before October 2018 and a risk allowance of US$150. Anything less than this is callous, blatantly unfair labour practice and palpably unjust.”
