Parliament staff rebuff APM plea

• Over K38 million down the drain in two days
• Reject 18% offer backdated to October 2014

Parliament Secretariat staff on Wednesday rebuffed Malawi President Peter Mutharika’s request to return to work and keep National Assembly business moving while negotiations on their demands for a pay increase are held in the background.

Parliament Staff Union president Leonard Tilingamawa, in an interview yesterday, said government has offered them 18 percent increment to be paid in arrears from October 2014 and a six percent raise to be effected in July 2015, but backdated to October as well.

He, however, said they are not taking the offer.

Said Tilingamawa: “When we calculate the six percent that government wants to give us in July against the number of parliamentary workers, it is coming up to about K2.7 million and we cannot believe government cannot raise that amount when recently it has increased salaries for a lot of other civil servants with higher percentages such as 45 percent.”

He said it is not understandable for government to say they should return to work and continue with discussions because negotiations between the two parties started a long time ago, but nothing was bearing fruits; hence, the employees’ decision to down tools.

“If they want us to go back to work, they should give us the 24 percent. If they have managed to increase other civil servants’ salaries with 45 percent, why not our 24 percent, which is just little compared to the other amount,” he added.

The strike has disrupted proceedings of the Mid-Term Budget Review Meeting of Parliament, which only opened on Monday and in light of these developments, Parliament failed to meet again yesterday.

PSC spokesperson Ralph Jooma’s phone went unanswered on several occasions when contacted yesterday, but it was reported that the committee was locked in a meeting with the union representatives to discuss the way forward.

And while the strike entered its second day on Wednesday, MPs continued to get their allowances despite doing nothing.

Reacting to the development, leader of United Democratic Front (UDF) in the House Lucius Banda described the situation as “a pity and costly” to both government and the taxpayer.

Explained Banda: “This is becoming very expensive because apart from the business we conduct in the House, we are being paid for nothing, which is unfair to the ordinary people out there. Government spends about K100 000 [including allowances] on a single MP a day and if you do the calculations you will agree with what I am saying.”

Based on the K100 000 cost per MP, it means that during the past two days of inaction in the House—K38.6 million has gone down the drain.

The amount that has been wasted in two days (K38.6 million) could provide 50 kilogramme (kg) bags of maize to some 8 500  families which on average comprise six people—meaning that it can benefit around 51 000 people starving due to floods that have ravaged the country.

However, in an interview with The Nation yesterday, Leader of Government Business in the House Francis Kasaila expressed hope that proceedings will resume today.

As we went to press, Parliament Secretariat was reportedly drafting a statement asking staff to return to work. There were no details.

–Additional reporting by BONIFACE PHIRI, Staff Reporter