BY STAFF REPORTER

The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority Trade Union (ZIMRATU) has on behalf of its members advised their employer the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) that they are now incapacitated to report for duty citing poor wages.

The employees have requested to work for three days per week so they could use the remainder to perform “side hustles” to supplement their poor wages which they say has depreciated in value by 397 percent between January and December last year.

In a letter to ZIMRA Commissioner General, copied to ZIMRA board chair Antony Mandiwanza, ZIMRATU President Dominic Manyangadze said members are now surviving on borrowing to supplement their wages.

He said fuel prices were now pegged in US dollars while the continued price surge in the country has eroded members’ wages.

“The ZIMRA workers have declared that they are incapacitated and thus, they will not be able to fully engage with the employer’s business on a daily basis to enable them to supplement their incomes to cover rentals required in forex by landlords and school fees required in forex at schools including government schools. Now therefore given the foregoing and the inadequacy of ZIMRA employees’ remuneration against the current economic environment, please take notice that our members will not have the capacity to consistently report for duty and thus request for a work arrangement which enables them to report for duty three days a week,” Manyangadze said.

He said ZIMRA workers were worried that they were at the centre of the country’s revenue collection systems, and in many instances, gathering inflation adjusted revenue, but the employer has failed to appreciate their own needs.

He said they were discouraged that the tax collector has failed to yield calls for a wage review to meet their needs.

He union said all the tax collector’s workstations are unhappy with wages which have reduced to a US dollar equivalent of US$45 describing this as wage theft.