Government, Teachers Clash Over Unexplained Salary Deductions – Eduzim News

Tinotenda Hove – The Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) has escalated tensions with the government over unexplained salary deductions and the scrapping of physical pay advice slips, accusing authorities of creating a system that is opaque, dysfunctional, and unfair to educators.

Last week, ARTUZ’s National Executive formally submitted a demand to the Paymaster, condemning the exclusive use of an online portal for pay information. The union described the digital-only policy as a deliberate barrier to transparency rather than a step toward modernization.

“The current digital-only policy is not a step toward modernization; it is a calculated barrier to transparency,” the union said in a statement.

The union highlighted that the portal disproportionately affects rural teachers who lack reliable internet access, while rising data costs make the system unaffordable for underpaid educators.

“Most teachers, particularly those in rural stations, have no reliable access to the internet. Furthermore, the skyrocketing cost of mobile data makes accessing the portal a financial burden that underpaid educators simply cannot afford,” ARTUZ said.

The union also slammed the portal itself as unreliable. “The online system is chronically offline. Forcing teachers to rely on a non-functional website is a denial of their right to information,” it said.
Concerns over unexplained deductions in teachers’ salaries were a central point of criticism. “Physical slips are the only way to track and stop the predatory and fraudulent deductions currently bleeding our members’ meager salaries,” ARTUZ stated.

In a stinging rebuke of the government, the union accused authorities of using the paperless system to avoid scrutiny over low wages. “We maintain that the government is hiding behind ‘paperless’ systems to avoid the public shame of printing poverty-level wages—the ‘peanuts’ that currently pass for a civil servant’s salary,” the union said.

ARTUZ demanded the immediate reinstatement of printed pay advice slips and warned that digitization without proper infrastructure constitutes administrative injustice. “The government cannot digitize an economy while the workers lack the tools, data, and electricity to participate in it.
Transparency is not optional,” the statement said.

The dispute underscores rising frustration among teachers, who have been urged to document any unexplained deductions as the confrontation with authorities intensifies.

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