Parliament staff threaten strike
As members of Parliament start arriving in Lilongwe for the start of the mid-term budget review meeting on Monday, staff at the National Assembly secretariat plan to stage a sit-in to protest against a proposed five percent salary increment.
Parliament staff on Grades P4 to SCIV have previously rejected a proposed salary revision ranging from five to nine percent which would have put them at par with the mainstream civil servants on Grades E to Q.
Instead, they asked the government to implement a Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) approved 24 percent across the board, but the Department of Human Resource Management and Development (DHRMD) has refused to implement this.
A source within Parliament told Weekend Nation on Thursday that staff agreed to go on strike when Parliament starts meeting following the inconclusive talks with Parliament management.
“Yesterday we had a meeting during which, among other things, we confirmed that we will stage a strike right at Parliament. It will start on Tuesday,” he said.
Chairperson of the Parliament Staff Union Leonard Tilingamawa said the strike would go ahead if the Monday meeting between PSC and Ministry of Finance officials yielded no results.
“We have been discussing with the government for a long time, but without success. It is the staff which has agreed to go on strike, but only after Monday should there be no favourable response from the government,” Tilingamawa said.
The Parliament secretariat staff argued that five percent increase would be swallowed up by taxes and the ever-increasing cost of living.
Their bosses, the Clerk of Parliament, who is the equivalent of principal secretary, was expected to get a 19 percent increment to be at par with his mainstream civil service counterpart while deputy clerks would have received the highest increment of 23 percent.
Leader of the House Francis Kasaila, who has announced the programme of the four-week meeting, confirmed that he was aware of an impending strike at Parliament but he was hopeful a resolution would be reached by Friday [yesterday].
“The Speaker briefed us on the impending strike yesterday [Wednesday] following a meeting with the principal secretary for Human Resource, but he has not come back to us on what they have agreed. But we are hoping that by Friday we will hear of an agreement,” he said.
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe was yesterday scheduled to meet with PSC to discuss the matter but the issue was unresolved by the time Weekend Nation went to bed.
According to the schedule for mid-term budget review meeting, the government has lined up seven bills including the minimum marriage age and human trafficking bills, a ministerial statement on the disasters which have hit most parts of the country and a mid-year budget review statement scheduled for Friday, February n
