NJNC Captured

NJNC Captured, Misrepresenting Civil Servants: Teachers Unions
Teachers unions have distanced themselves from a salary deal that was agreed and signed between the government and the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC) on Monday.

This comes after it emerged that more than 50 school heads and 32 teachers had been suspended after they stayed away from work citing incapacitation.

On Monday, government announced that it had met with the Apex Council in the NJNC, where the union leaders signed the agreement sealing a recent salary deal that includes a 20% wage increase.

But teachers unions said they were not part of the deal.

“We were not involved,” Progressive Teachers Unions of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou said.

“Government, as usual, met with its praise singers in Apex Council, whose hands are greased by personal emoluments in parastatals where they are board members. It’s a travesty and insult to teachers for such people to misrepresent civil servants for personal gain. All civil servants are angry and apprehensive and no amount of lies and brutality can outstrip their anger.”

In a statement, the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz) said: “Artuz has noted the manufactured agreement between the government of Zimbabwe, who is our employer, and the Apex Council, that purports to represent workers unions.”

Tapedza Zhou, president of the Educators Union of Zimbabwe, said the “PSC [Public Service Commission] should stop manipulating the NJNC by congesting it with pseudo unions”.

“The results are there for everyone to see why NJNC should incorporate genuine unions and hate self-intoxication. Real negotiations are proceeding outside the NJNC,” Zhou said. Newsday