Civil Servants and Allied Workers Union of Zambia General Secretary, Makai Makai has thanked the Government for the strides it has made since assuming power last year.
Mr Makai said the 10.5 percent salary increment awarded to civil servants effective January year has added value to their retirement package.
Mr Makai said this when he paid a courtesy call on Northwestern Province Permanent Secretary, Grandson Katambi in Solwezi today
” What this will do to the civil servants is that there are two fold benefits…one when people retire their pensions are calculated based on the salaries…so when your salary is increased it means when you retire what you take home as your pension will be meaningful.. So that is a benefit” he said.
He further said the salary increment is also going to increase the borrowing for those who borrow for investment as they prepare for retirement.
Mr Makai said this has given civil servants more purchasing power.
Meanwhile, Mr Makai has urged the civil servants to stay away from practicing partisan politics and support the government of the day.
He said he is in the province to hold meetings with members of the unions to update them on what is happening and on how they arrived at the 10.5 percent recent salary increment.
“The other issue that I wanted to share with colleagues here is that, it was recently announced we had negotiations with the government from the 31st October, 2022 to 9th November, 2022 at which we concluded and agreed with the government to increase salaries for public service workers by 10.5 percent starting January 2023 and also increase subsistence allowance by K240 and out of pocket by K100,” he said.
And the Permanent secretary, Colonel Katambi urged Mr Makai to advise union leaders to change for the better.
Col. Katambi said in some departments people are being oppressed by Heads of Departments in the eyes of Union leaders but nothing is done.
“The purpose of a Union is to serve its members and represent them…but if they are denied leave when they have a funeral and the union is aware of what that is,” he said.