MORETA petition govt over salary deductions
By Tony Nkhoma
THE Movement for Restoration of Education and Teacher’s Affairs (MORETA) has petitioned the government to clean up the teachers’ payroll and ensure that no teacher belongs and subscribes to more than one teacher Union.
MORETA Zambia executive director Dr Samuel Mbumba said teachers in Zambia were losing money through an illegal deduction by unions they did not belong to.
“So, what we have asked the government to do is to clean up the payroll system, so that when they find a teacher with more than one union, then they have every mandate to drop that member from belonging to two or three or four unions,” Dr Mbumba said.
He said teacher unions in the country were allegedly conniving with human resource officers to register members without their knowledge.
“Everyone is just making use of the payroll system, everyone is just trying to find ways of surviving, which is uncalled for. And I think we will now go into this direction and let the unions not cry, because we are going to temper their money,” he said.
Dr Mbumba said unionism in Zambia had created destitution among teachers.
“If you go to any school, you are not going to find any teacher who says I signed here. Everyone just found themselves on the union list, which is not correct. It is evil,” he said.
He expressed worry that teacher unions had for a long time rejected to form a single teacher Federation which would address teachers concerns in totality.
“But they have decided to distance themselves, and now they are just enjoying the subscription that is coming from the teachers, which they are doing sometimes conniving, without even the teachers’ consent,” Dr Mbumba said
He said his organisation was engaging government in order to save teachers from being tormented further.
