CSTU sceptical about salary hike promise

The Civil Servants Trade Union (CSTU) says it will tread carefully to avoid being cheated on the announcement by the Office of the President and Cabinet that civil servants would have their salaries increased in the coming fiscal year.

Chief Secretary to the Government Bright Msaka announced in a communiqué on Saturday that government has instituted a committee to look at salaries of all civil servants and recommend the appropriate percentage.

Msaka said once the committee, which he said had already started its work, has made recommendations, the new salaries would be implemented in July at the start of the new financial year.

‘Government has always cheated us’

But CSTU president Eliah Kamphinda Banda said if the committee would not include members from the trade union, the whole process would not be complete.

“We have learnt that government would like to bridge the gap between mainstream civil service and other arms of government. We will have to observe as government has always cheated us,” he said.

Kamphinda Banda also said Msaka’s announcement was targeting the coming financial year whereas the demand from civil servants include the implementation of seven percent for the ending fiscal year.

In a questionnaire interview last week, Kamphinda Banda said civil servants were unhappy with the way government was handling their demands for salary increase as scheduled meetings have been postponed several times.

National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi (NONM) president Jonathan Abraham-Gama said they were looking forward to a salary increment percentage that would be in tandem with high cost of living and inflation rate of 10.9 percent.

On his part, Chauluka Muwake, Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) president, expressed hope that government was not running away from the issue and that shortly, the two sides would meet to reach a common ground.

Information and Civic Education Minister Patricia Kaliati said the unions should avoid bringing politics into the negotiations because such issues were not supposed to be in the media.

Government has just successfully completed negotiations with the striking Judiciary staff over the implementation of 2006 approved conditions of service. The courts have been closed for over two months now.