SARAH MWANZA –
ZAMBIA Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has welcomed Government’s move to lift the public service wage freeze which has been in force for
more than one year.

. Chishimba

ZCTU president Nkole Chishimba said President Edgar Lungu should be recommended for the courage exhibited in ending the wage freeze.
During the Labour Day cerebrations on Friday, President Lungu directed Secretary to Cabinet Roland Msiska and relevant Government officials to open salary negotiations with public service unions which should effectively lead to the end of the public service wage freeze.
Mr Chishimba said the move to lift the wage freeze was long overdue as it was an infringement on workers’ rights.
“We want to express our gratitude to the President for the courage that he exhibited and in the manner in which he did it, I know it
might not have been easy, it being a Government position,” he said.
Mr Chishimba said with the wage freeze in place, there would be no free collective bargaining in the country, hence the call on the
Government to never again impose the wage freeze on the workers.
He said in a democratic nation workers’ rights needed to be respected and imposing a wage freeze was an infringement on their rights by the
Government.
“The Ministry of Labour was saying that there was no wage freeze but we were worried because there was no official lifting of it,” Mr
Chishimba said.
“Now that the President has made the pronouncement to that effect, we now know that the wage freeze has been officially lifted and the
salary negotiations by the unions can be done freely.” Mr Chishimba called on President Lungu to exhibit the same courage on other contentious issues where workers views were different from Government’s.