Government has agreed to review conditions of service, including salaries and other benefits for civil servants this April, Nation on Sunday has learnt.
This is contained in a joint communiqué signed by Civil Servants Trade Union (CSTU) general secretary (GS) Madalitso Njolomole, Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) GS Charles Kumchenga and Government Negotiating Team (GNT) chairperson Charles Kalemba.

The statement stated that this was agreed at a meeting held in Lilongwe on Friday to discuss issues pertaining to civil servants’ salaries and benefits following a decision by the CSTU and TUM to hold a nationwide strike from tomorrow.

The planned nationwide strike was expected to go on until their demands were met.
But following the meeting, it was resolved that the strike be called off while the CSTU, TUM and GNT work on proposed improvements to civil servants’ conditions of service.

Njolomole: We will meet after three weeks

Reads part of the communiqué: “The two parties will continue to engage in negotiations regarding improvement of working conditions for civil servants in general, including salaries and other conditions of service.”

According to the press release, government will review the civil servants’ conditions of service, including the salaries and benefits, based on a financial analysis to be conducted.

While Kalemba could not be reached for comment yesterday, Njolomole expressed optimism.
He said it was agreed that a separate team must be put in place to analyse the civil servants’ benefits and that after three weeks they will meet to get feedback.
Njolomole said: “All such financial issues have to go through government budget and Parliament for approval. So, that is why we agreed that this should be incorporated into government’s next budget.

“This will benefit all civil servants, including health care workers that provide essential health care services to the public. The benefits of this are not going to be selective.”

CSTU and TUM wrote Kalemba early this month informing him of the impending strike, saying it was based on government’s failure to address their salary increment demands.
The civil servants union accused government of failing to meet their demands despite numerous engagements.
The trade unions has been pushing for a 35 percent salary increment.

Reads part of the letter: “We would like to notify government of our intention to call for a nationwide industrial strike for all civil servants in Malawi from Monday January 9 2023 that shall be called off when government addresses all the concerns we presented during the recent GNT meeting at Kumbali Lodge.”
The letter stressed that the livelihoods of civil servants have been adversely affected as they are failing to make ends meet with the current salaries and benefits which do not match the prevailing economic environment.

In July 2021, civil servants also put on hold a planned strike to force government to adjust their salaries by 15 percent in the 2021/22 fiscal year.
The civil servants cited a rise in the cost of living as basis for pushing for the increase.

And last month, members of the Judiciary support staff held a strike protesting Treasury’s decision not to approve their new conditions of service.
The implications of the strike were that some rulings failed to be delivered and police could not bring to the courts suspects that had scheduled appearances.
The strike came to an end after the support staff and Treasury agreed to review their conditions of service. n

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