Barely four months after civil servants in Malawi went on a nationwide strike, another strike is looming following dissatisfaction with how government has handled the civil servant’s salary increase in the 2013/2014 national budget.
The Civil Servants Trade Union (CSTU) on Friday last week was forced to organise an impromptu meeting with its members at Capital Hill where the workers expressed concern that they were not happy with the 30 percent increase in the wage bill, which they fear would mean low salary increases, less than the 61 percent effected in February 2013.
The workers asked why Malawi’s Minister of Finance Ken Lipenga was silent on the civil servant salaries when he presented the budget in the august House three weeks ago.
CSTU president Ellia Kamphinda Banda confirmed meeting the union members, saying the civil servants were not happy with what has been offered in the current budget.
“Our meeting was aimed at updating them on what we discussed with the Government Negotiating Team (GNT) last Thursday and our major concern is what is in the wage bill in the 2013/2014 budget. The civil servants feel that it should have been slightly above that,” he said.
He said, as a union, they were worried that government presented the 2013/2014 financial plan without meeting the workers.
