By FLAVIOR CHISHALA –
Government has increased salaries for all least-paid council workers by up to about 67 per cent.
This was revealed after the signing of the 2016 collective agreement between the Government, Fire Services Union of Zambia, and the Zambia United Local Authorities’ Workers Union (ZULAWU) for council workers in divisions ll, lll and lV.
The Government has also improved the conditions of service by aligning them with those of mainstream Government workers.

. LUNGU

Local Government and Housing Permanent Secretary Misheck Lungu said the Government wanted to create an enabling environment and motivate council employees to perform effectively and efficiently.
Mr Lungu said the Government focused on uplifting the lives of more than 9,250 employees in the low-income bracket of K1,119 to K2,346 as take-home pay.
He said the collective agreement would guide all local authorities in remunerating council workers falling under divisions ll, lll and lV in 2016 through seven principles of the Public Pay Police, which included equal pay for equal work.
The agreement has also introduced compulsory health, funeral insurance and life assurance schemes, as well as maintenance of housing and transport allowance as a percentage of the basic salary to eligible employees.
Mr Lungu said in 2016, local authorities would have two main sources of revenue to finance their mandates of provision of municipal services and paying emoluments.
He named the two sources as the Local Government Equalisation Fund by the Central Government to all councils and locally-generated revenues.
ZULAWU president Misheck Nyambose said the success of any Government depended on how well-managed and financed the councils were.