By SIMON MUNTEMBA
IT is disappointing that the government, which campaigned on promises to improve the living standards, has suspended the debt swap scheme for civil servants, New Heritage Party vice president Samuel Kasankha has said.
Mr Kasankha said in an interview that they were disappointed that the new dawn Government had terminated the debt swap scheme in an “uncaring manner.”
He said the withdrawal of the facility had caused budgetary distortions for concerned workers whose September salaries had been subjected to deductions which the workers were not expecting.
“The New Heritage Party is taken aback by the uncaring manner in which the government has dealt with the debt swap that was negotiated between public service unions and the PF government,” he said.
Mr Kasankha said much as debt swap looked like a gimmick by the PF to get votes, it was a good collective agreement which the current regime should not have just terminated without consultations.
He argued that the new government could not have arbitrarily overturned what was a collective agreement with the representative unions.
Mr Kasankha said the new dawn Government should have taken time to consult all parties about the discomfort with the arrangement and, if they were to reverse it, there should have been agreement by all parties.
He urged the Government, which campaigned on promises to increase salaries of civil servants by K1, 500 across the board, to exercise caution when dealing with the matter, lest they quickly demotivate workers.
Mr Kasankha appealed to the government to rescind its decision saying, “it is not too late to revisit this matter and return to the negotiating table.”
