The Northern Technical College (NORTEC) of Ndola on the Copperbelt is reported to be facing funding and cash flow challenges which has led its workers to threaten to strike due to delayed payment of salaries.
One of the workers representative who asked for their identity to be withheld told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT that all staff members were supposed to be paid their salaries on 21st of September 2021 but due to cash flow challenges being faced by the college, management says it will only be able to pay the salaries in the second week of October 2021.
NORTEC seems to be resorting to delaying payment of salaries, but the workers are getting adversely affected due to their commitments which the management seems not to be finding solutions to.
The workers are threatening to go on strike on Monday, which puts students in a difficult position as they are scheduled to have exams on the same day, Monday 4 October 2021.
The source said management has said that it is unable to pay salaries because it is being owed huge sums of money for bursaries by government dating back as far as 2017, adding that students have been learning but government has not been paying for the students who are on bursaries.
The source said because management has not been funded, they are not able to pay salaries on time stating that their bank accounts have been depleted. Efforts to get a comment from the Ministry of Education and the Loans and scholarships board by ZBT proved futile by press time.
