ACB staff issue 7-day ultimatum, to go on strike Dec 8
It never rains, but pours for the Peter Mutharika administration. Whereas the Judiciary staff impasse is yet to be addressed, employees of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) have given government a seven-day ultimatum to raise their salaries in line with their conditions of service or they will go on strike on December 8.
The workers claim their employers—ACB and government—have breached contract by failing to enforce what is stipulated in the ACB Staff Terms and Conditions of Service.
If the employees go on strike, the development is likely to affect investigations into the unpopular Cashgate where the graft-busting body is currently probing several people for their links to the scam.
In their ultimatum titled ‘Notice of intention to strike’ dated December 1 2014 and served on ACB director Lucas Kondowe and Principal Secretary for Ministry of Labour, the workers have given government up to December 7 to implement what is in their conditions of service or they will go on strike come December 8.
Reads the notice: “Take notice that we, the employees of the Anti-Corruption Bureau being dissatisfied with the breach of contract by the director general of the Anti-Corruption Bureau vis-à-vis enforcement of terms and conditions of service, are intending to go on strike.
“As a dispute of right, our preference was to go to court for litigation, but since the courts are almost non functional we have no choice, but to commence a strike as a way of enforcing our right under the contract.”
According to the employees, Article 01.09.2 of ACB’s Staff Terms and Conditions of Service provides that their salaries shall be revised by the bureau any time there is (a) a raise in the civil service salaries and (b) an increase in the cost of living.
Further to that, Article 01.09.3 provides that in the case of devaluation, the salaries will be adjusted to maintain their current value and in the case of a raise of salaries in the civil service, the bureau’s salaries will be adjusted to a percentage more than the civil service rate to keep them competitive.
However, the workers argue that since the civil service salaries were raised (effective October 1 2014) and since there has been an increase in the cost of living, the director has breached the aforementioned articles by failing to raise their salaries.
“Take further notice that all the employees of the Anti-Corruption Bureau intend to commence the strike on 8th December 2014 if the director general does not implement Article 01.09.2 and Article 01.09.3 of the Anti-Corruption Bureau Staff Terms and Conditions of Service by that date,” states the notice.
Kondowe confirmed in an interview yesterday he had already forwarded the notice to the Chief Secretary to Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) George Mkondiwa.
He said he had been meeting the employees and assured them that government was aware of the matter.
Said Kondowe: “I can confirm that I have received that notice… I have communicated to the Chief Secretary and I am sure that in the next few days they will receive the communication they are expecting.”
According to our sources, the employees want an average of 70 percent salary increment, a demand they already presented to government.
“Since October when salaries in the civil service were raised, ACB has engaged OPC and the Department of Human Resources Management and Development to raise our salaries in line with our conditions of service, but no response has been forthcoming in spite of the clear terms and conditions of service.
“What you need to understand is that salaries in the bureau have been neglected for a long time. They are no longer competitive,” said a source yesterday.
Already, government is grappling with the ongoing Judiciary support staff strike, which has now gone into the fourth week while employees of the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) are also on strike demanding a salary hike.
However, the Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) and Civil Service Trade Union (CSTU) last week warned that should government go ahead with the salary increments, the union will also ask its members to down tools.
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe categorically told The Nation on Monday that Treasury would not implement the salary increment requests because that would defeat the purpose of harmonisation of salaries in the civil service, which government is working on.
Where do the government employees think the money will come from,every government agency is asking for salary increase yet if you look at the output/performance of these entities is very poor.
Let them improve their performance before they ask for salary increase. In fact the courts were not suppose to be on strike,remember they are the same people who declared the incumbent Malawi leader a win so what are they crying.crying. Simunati.
Malawians need to focus on doing business(being entrepreneurs) to ease the pressure on government on some of these issues. Does this country have any plans of generating more revenue through production? or we are busy chasing old taxes that were made during the previous regimes? Wake up, Does this country have leadership so that he/she can come in the open and steer the ship towards the light direction?
Its folly for conditions of service to be reviewed based on threats to withdraw labour. Let the public service renumeration board be proactive in re-aligning renumeration packages for all. The current situation does not provide incentives to work in other government departments or ministries because of poor conditions of service, even if, the employees have the same qualification.
If the president is spending money recklessly on Journos, he must also cough out some for salaries for all these people. where did he get the money he has been handing out?