Parliamentary staff slaps bosses with court injunction over recruitment of new workers

Staff at parliament have taken management by surprise when they slapped it with a High Court injunction effectively stopping the National Assembly from recruiting 56 new members of staff.

Parliament’s Workers Union argues that the management would have first made internal advertisements so that incumbent staff filled the existing vacancies by way of promotion before asking people outside parliament to fill the vacancies.

Paul Mandiwa, chairman of the workers union said the existing staff needed promotion.

“What we are saying is that management needed to advertise internally so that the current staff goes for interviews and fill some of the positions before inviting others outside the National Assembly,” he said.

The Parliamentary Service Commission advertised for vacant positions in some local newspapers last week, calling for applications from people who would go for interviews and succesful ones fill up the positions.

Public Relations Officer for National Assembly Leonard Mengezi said the Parliamentary Service Commission, chaired by Speaker Richard Msowoya has received the court injunction.

“PSC will hold the interviews until the case is heard on 15 March,” he said.

This is the first time that staff at parliament have halted recruitment of new members of staff until existing staff are promoted first.