Civil Servants Trade Union (CSTU) has rejected Malawi Government’s offer on new salaries, saying it has failed to take into account the economic hardships currently being faced by the civil service.
In a press statement dated August 27 and signed by CSTU president Servance Sakala, general secretary Madalitso Njolomole and Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) general secretary Denis Kalekeni, CSTU has instead made a counter-offer.
“The offer that Government has made falls short of addressing the most critical needs of civil servants and has failed to take into account economic hardships that civil servants are facing.
“Appreciating the economic challenges the Government is going through; the Unions have made a counter-offer which is substantially below the initial proposal, but slightly above Government’s offer. The Unions would like to urge Government to seriously consider implementing the counter-offer,” reads the statement in part.
In addition, the statement says government’s offer also falls short of addressing the issue of harmonising remuneration in the public service as advocated by the unions.
“The unions would like to urge Government to seriously consider establishing the Public Service Remuneration Board as soon as possible,” reads the statement.
Both parties declined to disclose how much government brought to the negotiating table as pay increment for civil servants.
But chairperson of the Government Negotiating Team (GNT) Ben Botolo expressed shock at the CSTU’s rebuff, saying: “They never said that when we met them on Wednesday.”
Botolo said CTSU’s demand for a 65 percent salary increase could trigger the collapse of the economy as the country is still recovering from the effects of Cashgate.
“We had a meeting with them and they never rebuffed our offer. CSTU told us that certain grades in government needed to be raised slightly higher and we agreed to look into that, but they never rebuffed or counter-offered. I am surprised,” he said.
When asked on the possibility of going back to the drawing board, Botolo said they will get back to them today.
“We cannot be making such huge offers, it would be too much, but we will meet them on Friday and we will see how it goes,” he said.
Government and CSTU have been fighting over salaries for months now and have not reached any conclusive agreements.
In June, CTSU threatened to stage a sit-in because government failed to respond to its demands regarding leave grants and salaries.
