Maneb data entry clerks cry foul over meager salaries
Temporary data entry clerks at Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB) in Zomba have described their monthly salary as a mockery arguing the national examinations office lacks the welfare of its temporary employees.
The clerks are performing their duties on the yet to be released 2013 Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examination.
They have also done their job for the recently released Primary School Leaving School Certificate (PSLC) and Junior Certificate of Education (JCE) examinations’ results.
The temporary data employees expressed their discontent in reaction to an inter-office memorandum on the adjustment of their monthly salary from K10, 000 to K15, 000.
The internal memo sourced by Nyasa Times has been signed by MANEB’s senior human resource management officer Lloyd Chipagala and is dated 17th September, 2013.
“I am pleased to inform you that in an effort to improve the rising cost of living, the Board has approved that salaries for temporary employees be adjusted from K10, 000 to K15, 000 per month,” reads the memo in part addressed to all temporary employees and copied to MANEB executive director and his deputy, and the director of finance.
Said one disgruntled data entry employee: “This is not being fair to us. Imagine they have revised the salaries without indicating our arrears as from 1st September 2013. The money is just peanuts and a mockery to all the temporary employees.”
Another one said: “We are handling sensitive materials which warrant us to be given improved remuneration than what we are getting at the moment. We have been receiving K10, 000 per month since July this year and K500 as over time from 5pm to 8pm week days. And during weekends we receive K500 from 8am to 12pm. So you can see that we are not being motivated in our work because we also have to buy lunch using the same for the whole month.”
In a related development a week ago, teachers at St Mary’s Secondary School marking centre in Zomba staged a brief sit-in demanding MANEB to pay them through the accustomed procedure as opposed to depositing allowances to their bank accounts.
