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TUCTA threatens strike over wages
2008-07-25 10:17:47
By Hannah Mwandoloma
The Trade Union Congress of Tanzania (TUCTA) yesterday threatened to call a countrywide strike within two weeks.
The proposed industrial action is in protest against the government`s decision to reject the minimum salary scale as proposed by trade unions.
TUCTA secretary general Nestory Ngulla has urged all workers to decline receiving this months` salary as it does not include arrears that were payable since January.
``We are going on a strike. We will demonstrate in all regions and districts across the country. The government is humiliating us for its failure to give us the new salary. We still don`t understand why the government should refuse to increase the minimum wage,`` Ngulla said in Dar es Salaam.
Ngulla said after lengthy negotiations with the government, a 100,000/- minimum wage was agreed upon, payable effective January this year.
He said in May this year, the government announced that the new wage scale would be paid in the financial year 2008/09; and assured workers that the outstanding increment would be compensated in July.
Ngulla said that workers had waited patiently to receive their due wages effective January as it had been agreed upon.
The new minimum salary is 100,000/-, up from the previously announced increment of 80,000/-.
``The government is now telling us it cannot pay us the 20,000/- due to each employee. The authorities are saying that they are unable to compute the calculations at the moment because some of the employees have died and others have been hired elsewhere. These reasons have made us even more furious,`` said Ngulla.
He said: ``We are giving the government 14 days to pay our pending salaries. We are not going to collect this month`s salary if it will not include arrears.``
Ngulla said while the government claimed to have no money, it increased allowances for senior leaders every year.
Asked how TUCTA was going to confront the security organs during the strike, Ngulla said that every good move shouldn’t turn out badly.
He said in the unlikely event of security forces throwing tear gas canisters and people getting hurt or even losing their lives in the process, the people`s valiant action would earn them a good name with future generations.
He said they did not agree with a statement given by Minister for State in the President`s Office for Public Service and Management, Hawa Ghasia, that the awarded pay rises had resulted from the deliberations of the Presidential Salary Review Commission, since the report was yet to be made public.
``If what she said was true, then the minimum wage would have been 150,000/- as proposed by the commission,`` said Ngulla.
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