The honeymoon appears to be over for Zimbabwe's inclusive government, with restless civil servants now demanding their dues at a time the government is still hard-pressed for cash.
Since the formation of the inclusive government in February 2009, many government workers had been living on the hope that their economic conditions would improve as the year progressed.
However, while basic commodities became available and services generally improved, not much has come their way in terms of better
remuneration.
The government continues to blame the small wages on the unavailability of funds, saying it hopes to increase them as the economy improves.
However, the workers, who have been earning monthly allowances of 150 U.S. dollars across the board, are now demanding more, with their unions
pushing for between 500 U.S. dollars and 600 U.S. dollars a month with effect from January 2010.
When presenting the 2010 national budget, finance minister Tendai Biti allocated 600 million towards civil servants' salaries, which was almost half the 1.44 billion U.S. dollars anticipated revenue.
Teachers have since warned that they may take strike action unless their wages are increased and it remains to be seen whether all of them will report for duty on the first day of the new school year on Tuesday.
The country's largest teacher organization, the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) alleges that teachers have been neglected for too long
and the government should address their problems.
"We are meeting our employer on Tuesday to come up with a common ground. We have our concerns, which we believe should be addressed because we have been neglected for too long," she was quoted as having said at the weekend.
However, teachers have generally been better rewarded than their fellow civil servants with parents giving them financial incentives to keep them in class. Others conduct "extra lessons" to boost their wages. This practice is generally frowned upon by many people because the teachers do little during official hours and then work hard during the "extra lessons" which are not
attended by children whose parents fail to pay.
Although the government has allowed the teachers to get incentives from parents, teachers' organizations are not happy with the arrangement, arguing that their members in rural areas where the country's poor live do not enjoy
the same benefits. This means, therefore, that wage distortions now exist among teachers, even in urban areas where some "elite" schools offer more than their counterparts in high-density areas.
Other associations representing government workers are also demanding higher wages above the poverty datum line which they have set at 500
dollars. According to the consumer watchdog the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, the breadbasket was at 488 U.S. dollars as December 2009.
Biti has described the current financial environment as difficult. "In the difficult financial environment, meaningful review and
improvement of public servants' conditions of service inclusive of remuneration and other benefits like transport and housing allowances,
training loan and pension benefits could not be fully implemented," he said at the launch of a three-year macro-economic policy framework in December.
As a starting point, Biti has removed the blanket allowance and replaced it with a package that recognizes skills, experience and grades.
Biti knows that he is caught between a rock and a hard place because he has to appease an increasingly restless civil service yet his coffers have very little to sustain wage increases acceptable to the lot.
To many civil servants the time for promises is over. They want action, but the only action the government can take right now, in the absence of increasing the wages, is to ensure that public utilities do not switch off services to defaulting consumers. Switching off services may trigger wildcat strikes as consumers begin to demand their dues.