Industrial workers are now calling upon the government to step in forward and gazette a minimum wage pegged in the United States Dollar with inflation eroding the labourers’ salaries.
A coalition of workers’ unions, the National Coordination Council (NCC) are saying that inflation is in supersonic mode and its effects are being more pronounced amongst the labourers.
“Prices of all essential basic commodities have sky rocketed at a very alarming pace in the recent past, and have gone way-way beyond the reach of most workers,” NCC chairperson Joseph Tanyanyiwa said.
“The workers predicament has further been compounded by the fact that, they are getting their wages/salaries transferred into their bank accounts where they are subjected to various forms and levels of taxation over and above the multi pricing system where our members continue to see different prices for basic goods and services for the Zimbabwean dollar, ecocash, POS transactions and the United States dollar.”
NCC also says the rise in the cost of living cuts a very deep would in the lives of workers and their families.
“At the heart of these rampant price hikes is the tendency by service providers of tracking the parallel market rates in theier pricing models even after accessing foreign currency at the forex auction,” said Tanaynyiwa.
“Rentals are now being explicitly denominated in USD with single room in the high density areas where the majority of our members reside now pegged at an average of US$60 per month, excluding water and electricity charges.”
“Out of desperation, the workers have to go to the parallel market to obtain the required USD at rates currently ranging between ZWL300 to ZWL360 to USD1.00,” explained Tanyanyiwa.
The local currency is losing value with the annual inflation rate rising to 96.4% in April 2022 from 74% recorded in March this year according to information from ZimStat.
Total Consumption Poverty Line (TCPL) stood at $9,708.15 per person in March 2022 a 6.2 per cent increase from February 2022 of $9,144.33.
Seven unions which make up the NCC include the National Union of Clothing Industry (NUCI), National Union of Metal and Allied Industries in Zimbabwe (NUMAIZ), Zimbabwe Chemical, Plastics and Allied Workers Union (ZCPAWU), Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Minerals Workers Union (ZDAMWU), Zimbabwe Energy Workers Union (ZEWU), Zimbabwe Leather, Shoe and Allied Workers Union (ZSLAWU) and the Zimbabwe Textile Workers Union (ZTWU).
