UNIONS SEE RED OVER DEBT SWAP CANCELLATION

By FLAVOUR KANUNGOTHE Zambia Union of Government and Allied Workers has asked the government to remit all the funds deducted from civil servants before suspending the debt swap. According to union’s vice president, Mr Muyaywa Kabisa, Government withheld most of the funds deducted from civil servants and did not remit to lending institutions for a number of months.Reports have emerged that the new government has suspended the civil servants’ debt swap to assess the viability of the exercise. In July this year, the Patriotic Front government introduced a debt swap scheme for civil servants which meant that the loans they owed financial institutions would not be deducted from their salaries for an initial three months. But Mr Kabisa said the union would not accept the suspension of the debt swap unless something better was put in place. Meanwhile, National Union for Public and Private Educators of Zambia president Victor Muyumba has expressed surprise that a legal agreement could be suspended without bringing it to the table of all parties involved.