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Nyemudzai Kakore Herald Correspondent
The Harare Municipal Workers Unions yesterday hailed Government for coming up with a new pay structure for council bigwigs, calling on authorities to rationalise salary structures in all councils.

Workers union’s leaders who spoke to The Herald said the new pay structure should apply to all employees from management level to general workers.

Harare Municipal Workers Union executive chairperson Mr Cosmas Bungu said Government was moving in the right direction.

“This is a move in the right direction in terms of ensuring that there is normalcy and equality in the distribution of salaries and benefits for employees working in local authorities,” said Mr Bungu.

“It is also critical that there is a review of all the executive salaries because what has been happening is that the executive payroll has been gobbling more than 70 percent of the salary bill. In redressing the matter, the general workers’ salaries in grade 5 to 16 should be pegged within the poverty datum line,” he said.

Mr Bungu called on the Ministries of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing and Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare to come up with a code of conduct for executive employees in grades one to four in all local authorities.

Urban and Rural Councils’ Workers Union secretary Mr Bernard Dhanda said to avoid a chaotic situation where other municipalities could demand adjustments to their salaries as well, a complete overhaul of salary adjustments was required in all municipalities.

“Under normal circumstances, salaries are structured in notch form, that is, from the least paid up to the town clerk, with salary notch differentials of $20 to $35. That is in terms of the international salary calculation method.

“All salary structures must be rationalised cascading down to the least paid worker for the equitable distribution of the salary bill. These salaries must be based on the capacity to pay of individual councils,” said Mr Dhanda.

The City of Harare has six directors, 45 middle managers and an overall workforce of 6 348.

Zimbabwe Urban Councils’ Workers Union secretary Mr Moses Mahlangu called on Government to deal with the rot in all local authorities where executives were getting hefty allowances, instead of targeting an individual like Dr Tendai Mahachi.

Workers union’s comments came as Government set up a salary structure for management at Harare City Council, which will see the town clerk earning $10 475,75 per month.