{"id":103519,"date":"2025-01-26T09:20:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-26T07:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zctu-slams-civil-servant-retirement-age-extension-2"},"modified":"2025-02-09T16:58:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T14:58:51","slug":"zctu-slams-civil-servant-retirement-age-extension-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zctu-slams-civil-servant-retirement-age-extension-2","title":{"rendered":"ZCTU Slams Civil Servant Retirement Age Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has voiced its disapproval of the government\u2019s decision to extend the retirement age for civil servants and uniformed forces, stating that the move fails to address the fundamental welfare issues affecting its employees and pensioners.<\/p>\n<p>This comes after the government, through Statutory Instrument 197 of 2024, increased the retirement age for civil servants and uniformed officers by five years, effective January 1, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Under the new regulations, civil servants can now retire at the age of 70, up from the previous 65, while regular soldiers\u2019 retirement age has been raised to 55 from 50, with the option to serve until 60 or 65 for war veterans.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement issued this Friday, January 24th, ZCTU\u2019s Acting Secretary General, Runesu Dzimiri, criticized the government\u2019s approach, arguing that the administration needs to address the pressing welfare challenges faced by its employees to make retirement a more attractive prospect. He said:<\/p>\n<p>Civil servants and pensioners are plagued with serious welfare challenges arising from poor remuneration and working conditions that are pauperising them to the extent that they involuntarily find it reasonable to work forever instead of resting and enjoying their old age<\/p>\n<p>Dzimiri said it was outrageous for the government to unilaterally extend the retirement age, without engaging in adequate consultations with its employees and their representatives.<\/p>\n<p>He said that while it is optional to work beyond the previous retirement age is available, this choice should not be driven by desperation or the fear of poverty in retirement, but rather by genuine desires and needs. Said Dzimiri:<\/p>\n<p>The government must pay above Poverty Datum Line salaries so that a worker can be at liberty to continue working or proceed on retirement without reservations.<\/p>\n<p>Government policy need to unlock employment opportunities for thousands of youths graduating from universities, polytechnics and vocational training institutions instead of shutting them out of employment.<\/p>\n<p>The move entails a five year \u2018freeze\u2019 or insignificant payment of pension gratuities with government saving millions of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>The move may also disadvantage some workers who may die before reaching the age of 70 as their benefits would be significantly reduced.<\/p>\n<p>Dzimiri called on the government to revisit the retirement age reform, urging the administration to respect senior citizens and focus on policies that bring direct and tangible benefits to its employees and pensioners rather than crafting measures that the ZCTU perceives as akin to \u201cslave policies\u201d intended to extricate the government from its responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Zimbabwe<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has voiced its disapproval of the government\u2019s decision to extend the retirement age for civil servants and uniformed forces, stating that the move fails to address the fundamental welfare issues affecting its employees and pensioners. This comes after the government, through Statutory Instrument 197 of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":103518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[258,10064,17719,103,19],"class_list":["post-103519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-civil-servants","tag-retirement-age","tag-uniformed-forces","tag-zctu","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>ZCTU Slams Civil Servant Retirement Age Extension - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has voiced its disapproval of the government\u2019s decision to extend the retir ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zctu-slams-civil-servant-retirement-age-extension-2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ZCTU Slams Civil Servant Retirement Age Extension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has voiced its disapproval of the government\u2019s decision to extend the retir ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zctu-slams-civil-servant-retirement-age-extension-2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-26T07:20:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-09T14:58:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2025\/01\/sm_1737870901.057868.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"637\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zctu-slams-civil-servant-retirement-age-extension-2#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zctu-slams-civil-servant-retirement-age-extension-2\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"ZCTU Slams Civil Servant Retirement Age Extension\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-26T07:20:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-09T14:58:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zctu-slams-civil-servant-retirement-age-extension-2\"},\"wordCount\":420,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zctu-slams-civil-servant-retirement-age-extension-2#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2025\/01\/sm_1737870901.057868.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Civil servants\",\"Retirement Age\",\"Uniformed Forces\",\"ZCTU\",\"Zimbabwe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zctu-slams-civil-servant-retirement-age-extension-2#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zctu-slams-civil-servant-retirement-age-extension-2\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zctu-slams-civil-servant-retirement-age-extension-2\",\"name\":\"ZCTU Slams Civil Servant Retirement Age Extension - 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