Remuneration Challenge: An obstacle to conducive employment relationsand a trigger for poor service delivery in a Local authority in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's major local authorities are failing to remunerate their workers as per agreed contracts of employment. This has often seen a lot of work stoppages by council workers as they embark on industrial action or threaten to dos so as a way of forcing management to accede to their demands of being paid salary arrears albeit deteriorating service delivery. The study was a qualitative survey and participants were drawn from local authorities' such as officers, senior administrators, councillors, workers' union members as well as labour experts and officers drawn from the Ministries of Public Service, Labour and Social welfare and that of Local government, Rural development and National housing. The study established that the weaning of local authority from government financial support had brought untold suffering to the council workers whose welfare had worsened as well as the rate payers who were subjected to poor service delivery. Workers were disgruntled with the huge salaries and perks that management awarded themselves yet they were owed several months' salary arrears. A lot of corrupt and fraudulent activities coupled with rate payers, some companies and government departments defaulting payment of rates, were contributing to serious financial deficits that affected councils operations including the remuneration of workers. The economic situation punctuated by liquidity crisis was also adversely affecting the councils' cash in-flows. The study recommended that there was need for; a culture paradigm shift on how council should conduct its affairs, conducting audits to expose shoddy dealings and irregularities as well as incorporating residents into task forces that should address issues of rates defaulting in order to boost revenues.