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Clr Chikozho

Patrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
CITY of Gweru has shelved plans to implement the adopted job evaluation exercise to give management and councillors more time to consider merits and demerits of the exercise to the local authority. The city’s Mayor, Councillor Charles Chikozho, said the job evaluation exercise was adopted in 2015.

The job evaluation exercise was going to cost council about $3 million to implement and was likely going to result in the retrenchment of employees.

“We have shelved plans to implement the job evaluation exercise for now because we need more time as the city fathers and management to consider the advantages and disadvantages of the exercise on the local authority. Remember, the people who prepared the document took two years to complete it and as council we can not hurriedly implement it in a space of a month,” said Cllr Chikozho.

Cllr Chikozho said there was need for management and councillors to look at the implications the exercise would have on service delivery and workforce.

“So, we are still looking at the advantages and disadvantages of the job evaluation exercise on council,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that the job evaluation exercise will result in the firing of employees. But for now we have shelved it until further notice and we can not give a time frame.”

Town Clerk Ms Elizabeth Gwatipedza, two weeks ago, defended the proposed $3 million job evaluation exercise, saying it was prudent to retrench some workers to remain viable.

“The job evaluation exercise was adopted in 2015 and a company called GIZ (German International Cooperation) was engaged to facilitate the exercise,” she said. “The first phase of the exercise has been completed and we adopted the first draft.

“Now we want to implement phase two and we have to pay about $3 million. For the past three months we have been collecting $1,2 million in revenue against $1,3 million that is going towards employment costs and other statutory obligations.”

Ms Gwatipedza said council was going to fire some employees if the second phase of the job evaluation was implemented.

“You should also remember that the 2016 annual budget for the city was approved by Government on condition that we cut employment costs and that can be done through job evaluation. Employment costs are chewing 56 percent of our revenue and that is not healthy for our finances because it negatively affects service delivery,” she said.