HARARE (AFP) — The Zimbabwean government has reversed a ban on pay increases put in place in a bid to curb the world's highest inflation rate, reports said Sunday.
Veteran President Robert Mugabe banned all non-authorised pay hikes and gave himself extra powers in a new attempt to curb inflation on August 30.
As part of the measures, all rents, school fees and service charges were ordered frozen for six months.
"However, it has since emerged that the regulations do not summarily freeze salaries but allow room for pay increases through collective bargaining agreements," the state-run Sunday Mail reported.
Labour Minister Nicholas Goche told the weekly that government was to amend the provision on salaries.
"We are working on amendments as far as incomes are concerned," Goche said.
Meanwhile, the country's main labour union on Sunday vowed to press ahead with this week's planned two-day strike over the country's economic meltdown and Mugabe's decree banning pay rises without special authorisation.
"The stay-away is definitely on this week despite their (government) claims that salaries have not been frozen," Wellington Chibebe, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, told AFP.
The strike is scheduled to begin on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe's economy has steadily declined over the past seven years, characterised by inflation running well past the 7,500-percent mark, with at least 80 percent of the population living below the poverty threshold.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
