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Mrs Alexander

Felex Share Senior Reporter
Teachers are demanding that Government allows them to go on vacation leave, as denying them that opportunity constitutes unfair labour practice and violates rights enshrined in the Constitution.

Government deferred vacation leave for teachers last year as a cost-cutting measure. The employer cited lack of resources to pay relief teachers during the three-month period that the full-time teachers would be away. Teachers raised the issue at a National Joint Negotiating Council held recently.

NJNC is a platform that brings Government and workers’ representatives to the negotiating table. Government was spending an estimated $2,5 million in outsourcing services from relief teachers.

Apex Council chairperson Mrs Cecelia Alexander on Friday said Government was violating Statutory Instrument 1 of 2000, which contained Civil Service Commission regulations. “We launched a complaint for teachers, who are being denied an opportunity to go on leave, which should be part of their conditions of service,” she said.

“Vacation leave was suspended and no teacher is going on leave at the moment, but days are accruing. We strongly feel that when people have worked for a certain period, they deserve the leave. Failure to be granted that opportunity constitutes unfair labour practice. Teachers should be allowed to go on leave and this calls for the Minister of Finance (Patrick Chinamasa) to budget for that.”

Mrs Alexander added: “We have presented it at the NJNC and Government has given us about two months to work on it before coming up with a response on the best way forward.”

The eligibility period for vacation leave for teachers is seven years. In deferring vacation leave, Government said the rest of the civil service, outside the education sector, was not bringing any financial burden to the employer when they went on vacation leave because they were not replaced.

As for teachers, Government said, a relief teacher had to be engaged with full salary and allowances for the duration of the vacation leave. This would be an additional cost to the fiscus, as teachers on leave will also be receiving full salaries and allowances.

The austerity measures by Government are part of the civil service rationalisation exercise approved by Cabinet in 2015.

The rationalisation seeks to reduce Government’s wage bill, which is chewing about 80 percent of revenue collected.