By Alois Vinga

THE Ferro-Alloy Industry key stakeholders representing both employers and employees organisations has approved a 35 percent salary increase across the board.

The announcement was made recently under Statutory Instrument 48 of 2020 sets out salaries for the period July to December 2019.

“Under the new salary scales , the least paid employee in grade 1 who used to earn $502 will be earning $678 per month while the highest paid employee in grade 12 who was getting $979 will now be taking home $ 1 300 per month,” said the instrument.

Employees in grade 3 who used to earn $526 have now been placed on $710; grade 4 workers have been placed at $713 up from $529: grade 5 are now at $759 from $562: grade 6 $805 up from $596 and grade 7 are now earning $836.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement was approved by Labour Minister, Paul Mavima section 80 of the Labour Act [Chapter 28:01], published in the schedule, which was registered in terms of section 79 of the Labour Act. Representing the employers in the crafting of the agreement was Ferro Alloy Industry Employers' Association, and the Zimbabwe Metal, Energy and Allied Workers' Union represented the workers. The National Employment Council for the Ferro Alloy Industry in Zimbabwe was also a party to the agreement.

“The increase covers the current salary scales for July 2019 and are a multiplication wage minimum by 35% for the period 1st August, 2019 to 31st of December, 2019, for employees in Ferro Alloy grades 1–16. Should the economic situation deteriorate, the parties shall reconvene to negotiate,” the CBA said.

The percentage awarded at 35 percent is way far behind the inflationary rate which currently stands at an estimated 520 percent. Workers in Zimbabwe are currently going through the worst experience in history owing to a series of poor economic measures being implemented by government which has seen the Zim-dollar depreciation accelerating at a time the market is indexing prices against parallel market exchange rates.