{"id":42583,"date":"2021-06-27T17:41:13","date_gmt":"2021-06-27T15:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?p=42583"},"modified":"2021-06-27T17:36:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T15:36:39","slug":"zim-teachers-suffer-us2-5-billion-wage-theft-by-govt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zim-teachers-suffer-us2-5-billion-wage-theft-by-govt","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Zim Teachers Suffer US$2.5 Billion Wage Theft By Govt\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Zimbabwe<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>By Alois Vinga<\/b> – PROGRESSIVE Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou says current and former teachers are owed a whopping US$2.5 billion in arrears arising from underpaid terminal benefits and unilateral salary cuts by government.<\/p>\n

He described this as wage theft.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Zhou said the arrears emanated from details revealed by the Auditor General\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The union leader said Auditor General, Milred Chiri\u2019s reports for 2018 and 2019 pointed out that government failed to collect, cumulatively, US$4.5 million from teachers in the form of revenue from departmental surcharges, treasury orders, penalties and fines dating from 2009.<\/p>\n

The shortcomings were attributed to ineffective measures put in place by the finance ministry to monitor revenue collection and debt recovery system.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, there is also the other side of the coin which she did not cover to the effect that government owes former teachers and current teachers more than US$2.5 billion in terminal benefits and unilateral reduction of salaries from US$520-US$550 to US$35-US$45 by 2020, and current equivalence of US$100-US$130,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to the country\u2019s labour laws, any unilateral salary cuts not subject to and affected in concurrence with the works council which comprise employees and employers\u2019 legal representatives are illegal.<\/p>\n

In labour terms, wage theft includes not paying minimum wage, unilateral salary cuts, withholding overtime pay, or requiring off-the-clock work.<\/p>\n

Zhou argued between 2000 and 2010, more than 110 000 teachers left the teaching profession and never received their terminal benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking on a conservative average of $13 000 terminal benefits per teacher, a cumulative $1.3 million realised. On average teachers lost US$400 when government\u2019s unilateral reduced teachers\u2019 salaries in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cA multiplication of US$400 x 136 000 (number of teachers) x 12 months x 3 years gives the sum of US$1.95 million. This callous theft must never be accepted in an independent country 41 years after independence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Zhou said teachers have a dispute of right to regain what they fraudulently lost, let alone to restore the purchasing power parity of their salaries amid calls to urging government to pay them a living wage as a matter of urgency.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThe post-dated 45% to be effected in July remains a monument of Zimbabwean injustice, more so given disparities between teachers and other government workers whose salaries were trebled and quadrupled in June 2020 while teachers\u2019 salaries remained static.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. By Alois Vinga – PROGRESSIVE Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou says current and former teachers are owed a whopping US$2.5 billion in arrears arising from underpaid terminal benefits and unilateral salary cuts by government. He described this as wage theft. In a statement, Zhou said the arrears emanated from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":42582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35,12,15],"tags":[1493,2189,19],"class_list":["post-42583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Zim Teachers Suffer US$2.5 Billion Wage Theft By Govt\u2019 - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Alois Vinga - PROGRESSIVE Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou says current and former ...\" \/>\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\/zim-teachers-suffer-us2-5-billion-wage-theft-by-govt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Zim Teachers Suffer US$2.5 Billion Wage Theft By Govt\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Alois Vinga - 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