LL teachers storm MEC, NFRA staff down tools
Discontention among the country’s workers melted up again yesterday as teachers from some constituencies in Lilongwe downed tools to force the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to pay them long overdue allowances for their role during the May 20 Tripartite Elections.
At the same time, staff at National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) also started an indefinite strike.
The developments come at a time Judiciary support staff are in the third week of their strike as well as after some primary school teachers in Blantyre also went on strike over delayed October 2014 salaries.
NFRA spokesperson Brenda Masanza confirmed that staff downed tools at the headquarters at Kanengo in Lilongwe and presented a petition full of workplace grievances, including demand for pay rise.
She said: “I am yet to get a briefing on what has transpired in a meeting between management and workers, but I can only confirm that they took industrial action. The details will be released later when I am fully briefed.”
At MEC offices in Lilongwe, teachers mimicked the classrooms environment, sung a little bit under a gaze of a strong sunbathe and police presence, but remained calm outside as their representatives tussled with MEC officials inside.
Enock Jere, a teacher at Kalemba Primary School in Chinjomba Zone, said MEC owed them K20 000 (about $40) each as allowances for their role as presiding officers in the May 20 Tripartite Elections.
But MEC spokesperson Sangwani Mwafuirwa blamed the delays in payment on logistical challenges the body did not previously anticipate the electoral body was working on rectifying the situation quickly.
