Zimbabwe’s tax agency lost nearly 70% of its new employees due to poor remuneration among other reasons, businessdigest can report.
Information gathered from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority’s (Zimra) official reports this week showed that the tax collector is facing a high staff turnover due to poor salaries.
“The authority engaged additional 282 staff members but lost 156 due to different reasons. Resignations account for the greatest burden to staff loss in Zimra,” the organisation’s commissioner general, Regina Chinamasa said in a statement accompanying the 2022 annual report.
“One hundred and ninety eight out of the 282 appointments were graduate trainees and this was a strategy to add to the organisation’s talent pipeline.”
Chinamasa, however, said Zimra continued to experience harmonious employee-employer relations across its entire network.
She said staff remuneration was reviewed in line with market trends.
“The authority continued to improve the welfare and wellbeing of employees through human resource strategies aimed at improving employee satisfaction, productivity, organisational culture and corporate image,” she said.
Chinamasa added that grants from government, interests on investments, donations, funds from unallocated reserves and earnings from rental income funded operational, staff and capital expenses.
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The forex component was mainly used to pay foreign currency obligations and Covid allowances for staff..
In the year under review, Zimra had an annual budget of ZW$75,7 billion inclusive of foreign currency amounting to US$50,8 million.
The tax collector used to be an employer of choice because of higher salaries it paid compared to other organisations.
However, employees now claim that they are unable to fulfil their daily work commitments due to the devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar.
They have since announced their intention to strike this month after failing to reach a consensus on salaries.
The Zimbabwe Revenue and Allied Workers Trade Union, which represents Zimra workers, said recently that collective bargaining sessions for March, April and May 2023 were unsuccessful, leading to the fallout.
During the sessions, Zimra staff demanded that housing and transportation allowances should be paid in United States dollars.
In light of the impasse, the matter was referred for conciliation after the full council of the national executive committee failed to resolve the issue.
The Zimbabwe Banks and Allied Workers Union expressed support for Zimra workers’ collective job action.
It encouraged all workers to stand together and support the strike until their demands were addressed.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration is grappling with an economic crisis underpinned by high inflation, which has wiped out salaries, and a weakening local currency that has triggered waves of price hikes.
