BUJUMBURA, November 24th (ABP) – The Burundi Unions’ Confederation (COSYBU) expressed itself following the decree of September 1, 2023 establishing practical arrangements for lifting the stoppage on advancement and harmonization of the mode of advancement of public institutions with special bylaws, which has not yet been implemented.
This is read in the content of the statement signed by the deputy chairman of COSYBU, Mr. Mélance Hakizimana, released on November 17, 2023.
According to that statement, COSYBU lets it be known that it is speaking out following the grumbling and lamentations of the officials concerned. The COSYBU asks the Government to apply the said decree in accordance with the agreement signed on February 23, 2023, during negotiations with the government party.
As the government has not implemented the content of that agreement, COSYBU notes that this staff has received the same salary from 2015 until 2023 despite the gap in career seniority, they continued to say through that statement.
COSYBU cites three regulatory provisions which clarified the terms of application of that agreement. This is the budgetary law in its article 34 paragraph 2 which stipulates that: “For public institutions of an administrative, industrial, and/or commercial nature, personalized administrations of the State as well as administrations of a social nature, the stoppage on administrative advancements is lifted from the 2023-2024 budget year.”
The general bylaw of civil servants specifies, for its part, the methods of advancement, in Article 76, paragraph 1: “the advancement of a civil servant includes advancement in step and advancement in grade”. Third, the presidential decree of September 1, 2023, in its article 5, sets the practical arrangements for lifting the advancement stoppage: “the same advancement rates are applied during administrative unblocking and fictitious advancement for staff in the institutions concerned”. The period of application is from 2016 to June 2023.
COSYBU asks the Government to respect the principles of acquired rights advocated by the salary policy and written in the labor code. COSYBU also calls on the Government to effectively implement the presidential decree of September 1, which establishes the release of advancement and the harmonization of the method of advancement of staff in public institutions with special bylaw so that they regain their rights.
COSYBU reaffirms, in conclusion, its availability for dialogue “to definitively resolve this issue”.