Lusaka City Council (LCC) workers have boycotted work and demanded the payment of K3.9 million by council management for their February and March salaries as well as K7 millions which the Local Authority owes them.
Thousands of angered workers gathered this morning at the city council chanting a slogan “Ayende” in reference to calls that the town clerk should resign from his duties as he and the local authority management have failed to take care and represent the workers well.
The workers have also demanded government to centralize the payroll system for council workers so as to equalize salaries for all council workers in the country regardless of the location they operate in.
“Delayed salaries for all categories of workers in the country is a cancer that must fought by all well-meaning Zambians. There is need to centralized the payroll system so that all council workers in the country can be paid equal salaries regardless of the location. Why should the salaries of management be kept a secrete while that of the head of state is known?” Zambia Local Authority Workers Union (ZALAWU) President Kinsley Zulu said as he addressed the workers.
The centralized payroll system will also ensure at the payday for council workers in known unlike the current situation where workers are paid on unknown dates.
“We refuse to be a laughing stock as some UNZA lectures are mocking and using us as examples of delayed salary workers. Instead of such an act by intellectuals, there is need to unit and fight against the system of delayed salaries that is becoming the order of the day. We demand that government gives us back intercity bus terminal so we can operate it and generate revenue for our salaries unlike the cadres running the bus station,” added Fire Union of Zambia Chairperson Julius Nkoma.
Nkoma has also urged government to speed up the process of centralized payments so that workers can know the exact day they will be having their salaries paid.
However, LCC Public Relation Officer George Sichimba could not comment on the matter but said management at the local authority will sit and deliberate on the outcome of the meeting that ZALAWU had with its workers.
Local government and councils in Zambia has struggled to recover after the centralization of key government services which was also coupled with privatization process which saw housing unitswhich were the main source of revenue being sold to sitting tenants.
Local Government Minister Vincent Mwale had last year pledeged to set up a national waste management utility company which is yet to become operational, adding to a long list of unfulfilled promises from the local authorities.
