Civil servants strike cancelled, teachers to return to class: Malawi govt meet their demands

Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) has called off the strike about 40,000 teachers across the country have been staging since last week after government through the Treasury paid their leave grants.

Civil servants at Capital Hill going back to work on Monday

And in related development, Civil Service Trade Union (CSTU) has also cancelled  its strike planned for Monday 19th June as government has agreed to meet some of its demands especially on the  45 percent salary hike.

TUM Secretary General, Charles Kumchenga in a notice to all Union members revealed that almost all districts have finalized receiving their leave grants and June salary transactions except Chitipa, Lilongwe, Chiradzulu and Likoma where there were problems of balancing the figures.

“Accountant General has also transferred everything to the Reserve bank of Malawi (RBM).

“This transfer was taking place around 4 pm yesterday (Thursday) which was very difficult for RBM to process for individual payment. In this case almost all districts are going to get their LGs on Monday and these districts with problems will get on the same Monday late hours or Tuesday,” wrote Kumchenga.

He added:“Ladies and gentlemen, looking at this development with tangible evidence, Teachers Union of Malawi is calling off the strike and requests all teachers to resume their work on Monday.

“Finally we are requesting all teachers who have been omitted to meet their DEMs for rectification of their problem. Those missed shall be paid together with July salary.”

On Friday Nyasa Times reported that TUM was contemplating of calling off the strike as some of its members started accessing their leave grants.

Some learners across the country this week took to the streets to violently protest against the teachers’ strike.

Civil Servants Strike

CSTU Secretary General, Madalitso Njolomole told Nyasa Times in an interview that they have scrapped off plans to have a strike on Monday as government is currently addressing their demands.

Njolomole said through negotiations, government has pledged to effect a salary hike of over 40 percent from the 10 percent pay hike the civil servants were initially offered in the 2017/18 national budget currently being scrutinized by Parliament.

“Government has started meeting some of our demands. It has agreed to give us a pay hike. We are still negotiating on the grading structure and we are hoping of having a positive response by Tuesday next week,” said Njolomole.

He said with the latest development, the lowest paid civil servants who have been getting K61,000 monthly (before tax) will now be getting K72,000 before tax. Initially CSTU wanted it to be K75,000.

The civil servants’ push for higher pay against the background of a warning by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the wage bill while strengthening tax compliance to mobilize enough resources in line with the country’s goals.

Following a 15 percent pay hike for the public sector last July, the public sector wage bill rose by K22 billion to K264 billion which, according to Treasury, was 23.3 percent of total expenditure in the K1.3 trillion 2016/17 national budget.

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tlungu
tlungu
6 years ago

provided this must materialise

Anyono
6 years ago

Tigula galimoto basi, APM CTU congrats

Tenzi Mzungu
Tenzi Mzungu
6 years ago

APM fire those who are embarrassing you. It means someone is not doing his job properly. Leave grant issue is long overdue. It doesn’t make sense to rectify the problem when under pressure

PCB
PCB
6 years ago

Nusty gvt

mmalawi
mmalawi
6 years ago

consider salary gaps between grades,its so pathetic grade i receiving more than half of grade j or k.look into into plz we are all malawians we deserve our own,one 4years the other 3years another one 2years then msce salary too must equaly distributed.

ayonzo mtsitsa
6 years ago

Better is the
word

Jenkha
Jenkha
6 years ago

Boma koma ili lomvetsera madandaulo a anthu ogwira ntchito. 2019 APM bomaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Ena akuti Sidik Mia Sidik Mia. Amai anaphofomoka bwanji a che Mia ali komweko. How I wish there was somebody intelligent in MCP to advise abusa. With MCP giving the North a vote of no confidence, rest be assured DPP will cut home not less than 60% landslide in 2019. Ngati mumaiwerenga game iwonereni patali. Bogus opinion polls will come and go. PAC will try its worst time and again but DPP will stay put. Nanji a che Mia osatha kuchita camapign? Inu amangwetu campaign mungamanene za chipembezo… Read more »

Humble
Humble
6 years ago
Reply to  Jenkha

This doesn’t give any sense. Can’t you use your head properly other than this?

Alick Mtendere
Alick Mtendere
6 years ago

Congratulations to CSTU for fighting for our lives. Those who are benefiting from us don’t see anything good from us. Only happy to see us living like slaves

Ayonzo mtsitsa
6 years ago

My kid must go to School! Holiday is over to both teachers & the pupils!

Herbert
Herbert
6 years ago

bolani pamenepa

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