. Kambwili

By BRIAN HATYOKA –
THE Zambia United Local Authorities Workers Union (ZULAWU) Livingstone branch has joined councils across Zambia who are calling for the dissolution of the Local Government Service Commission (LGSC).
ZULAWU Livingstone chairperson Kaluba Masese said the LGSC must be reshuffled or completely dissolved because it was not operating according to expectations of council employees.
Mr Masese said in an interview yesterday that his union strongly felt that there had been no professionalism in the manner the Commission was operating.
ZULAWU Livingstone chapter also submitted the same position to the Parliamentary Committee on Governance on April 29, 2014.
“The Commission has abused its powers in most cases by not following laid down regulations in handling recruitments, transfers, promotions and disciplinary cases as stipulated in the Local Government Act.
“With the introduction of the Decentralisation Policy by the Patriotic Front (PF) Government, the LGSC is totally irrelevant,” Mr Masese said.
He said there was no transparency in recruitments as the Commission was handling appointments without advertising the council positions.
Mr Masese said the appointments had blotted the wage bill to a level where local authorities would not be able to pay salaries in an event that the Government withdrew from giving councils salary grants.
“It is clear that all the officers recruited have a link to the LGSC. Transfers are also done out of hatred. Town Clerks are patronising the Local Government Service Commission asking them to transfer their perceived enemies,” he said.
And Mr Masese has commended acting Labour and Social Security Minister Chishimba Kambwili for giving councils a one-month ultimatum to clear all salary arrears owed to council workers.
He said all citizens should support Mr Kambwili’s directive as it would improve the welfare of council employees.
“We wish to appeal to management at Livingstone City Council to take the ultimatum seriously and clear all the arrears owed to division four council officers and casual workers.
Division four workers have not been paid their April and May 2014 salaries while casual workers are the most affected as they have been owed between four to seven months salary arrears,” Mr Masese said.
He said division one, two and three officers, who are paid by the Government through salary grants, had also not been paid their May 2014 salaries.