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Last Updated: Aug 13, 2008 - 10:07:41 AM |
The move is aimed at putting pressure on the government to effect
payment of the new minimum wage promised to workers at the beginning of
the year.
TUCTA Secretary General Nestory Ngulla told a news conference in Dar es
Salaam yesterday that workers all over the country are ready to
participate in the strike.
’’The government has been impolite to the employees of this country,
and the only way to react to this rudeness is by going ahead with a
national strike as an expression of our general dissatisfaction,’’
Ngulla said.
He said workers all over the country are this time determined to go on
strike for as long as it takes for the government to fulfill its
promise and start paying the new minimum wage.
Citing the recent strike of medical interns at the Muhimbili National
Hospital in the city, Ngulla said it was also a result of the
government's unwillingness to listen to reason.
’’The government should not regard these interns as students, but as
employees whose absence from work is likely to have far-reaching
implications to patients' welfare,’’ he noted.
He said many patients at Muhimbili are currently suffering because the
doctors still at work are not enough to serve all of them.
In the meantime, the Permanent Secretary in the President’s Office
responsible for Public Service Management, George Yambesi, told THISDAY
yesterday that the government has already started paying the new
minimum wage as from July this year.
’’We are already paying the new minimum wage as promised at the
beginning of the year, contrary to what the trade unions are saying,’’
Yambesi asserted.
He said the only thing still to be implemented is the payment of wage
arrears from January to June this year, with efforts now underway to
prove the names of which workers are eligible to receive the arrears.
’’We are going through the list of all the eligible workers, since some
have died, others have switched jobs and employers, and others have
retired,’’ the PS added.
Tanzania Teachers Union (TTU) President Gratian Mkoba meanwhile said
the process of filling forms for all teachers to allow them to organize
and participate in a nationwide strike will be completed by the end of
this week.
He said immediately after the upcoming strike involving all workers,
TTU will go ahead and call its own strike involving the teachers, who
are also demanding payment of their arrears by the government.
He dismissed as ’’pure propaganda’’ reports that the teachers are
divided over the move to organize a nationwide strike, saying available
statistics show that all teachers are tired of ’’unfulfilled promises’’
made by the government.
The TTU president cited some of the teachers’ claims as payment of
16.5bn/- in remaining accumulated payment arrears, as well as
inconsistencies in raising teachers’ grades.
Other demands by the teachers include payment of allowances for exam
paper corrections, whereby the teachers are currently being paid per
each paper corrected instead of a flat per diem.
According to Mkoba, the teachers also want the establishment of just
one authoritative body to deal with all problems facing teachers in the
country.
He said currently there are several government organs dealing with
teachers’ problems, some under the Ministry of Education and Vocational
Training and others under the Regional Administration and Local
Government portfolio, thus causing complications and confusion
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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