….as crisis in education sector continues
Rutendo Chirume
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has called upon the government of Zimbabwe to respect rights of workers like freedom of association as provided for in the country’s constitution following the arrest while demonstrating against low wages of 16 members of Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union (ARTUZ) in Harare on January 14 2022.
ITUC which represents 200 million workers in 163 countries including Zimbabwe strongly condemned the brutal arrest and unlawful detention of teachers for carrying out their legitimate trade union activities.
Amid calls to respect citizen rights, ITUC secretary general Sharan Burrow wrote a letter dated January 14 to President Emerson Mnangagwa bemoaning the deteriorating workers’ conditions and said the police officers involved in the arrest of teachers should be brought to book.
“The ITUC hereby makes the following demands to your government: the unconditional release from police custody of all the detained members of ARTUZ, immediately cease harassment of trade unionists by state security forces and judicial persecution of the same, investigate and bring to justice police officers who brutalised the demonstrators,” she wrote.
Burrow also questioned the capability of government under President Mnangagwa saying that the workers’ conditions have deteriorated far worse during the New Dispensation.
“The teachers and rest of the workers in your country have a very clear message –they want to be paid their United States dollars as was the case prior to October 2018.
“They are not demanding more, and it has already been proven that your government cannot go beyond what Mugabe left, instead we see a reverse if not the worst in conditions,” wrote Burrow.
Meanwhile the feud between teacher unions and government continues unabated as educators continue to demand the restoration of 2018 pre-October salaries, which has resulted in the recent arrest of 16 teachers while demonstrating though they were released after being detained in police custody for three days.
In November last year, government accused ARTUZ and PTUZ to be working with European agencies in order to oust the current government.
The arrested teachers were each granted ZW$ 5000.
