BY STEPHEN CHADENGA
GWERU City Council has assured its restive workers that they will not be retrenched when the local authority implements its staff rationalisation exercise.
Mayor Josiah Makombe last week said that the downsizing exercise would happen naturally as those that retire or resign would not be replaced, including deceased employees.
Makombe said the job evaluation exercise was carried out six years ago, and would be implemented anytime soon as it was expected to reduce council’s wage bill.
“You would remember that in 2015, a job evaluation exercise was carried through the help of the German International Co-operation,” he said.
“As council, we are at an advanced stage in implementing this exercise. The job evaluation is aimed at cutting the workforce from the current 1 400 to 790.
“It should, however, be understood that although the evaluation would see us reducing the workforce by almost half, no worker is going to be retrenched.”
Makombe said downsizing would ensure that workers that were not in critical departments were not replaced when they left employment.
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He said wage bill reduction would save for service delivery.
Over the years, council has been shelving plans to implement the job evaluation exercise after management and councillors said they needed more time to consider the merits and demerits of the exercise.
The local authority collects around $1,2 million every month in revenue, but employment costs gobble about $1,3 million monthly, leaving nothing for service delivery.
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