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Zambia's Supreme court on Monday dismissed an appeal by President Frederick Chiluba's government against an industrial court decision to award civil servants a salary increase of 40 percent, 'The Post' reported.
The ruling comes after the government imposed a wage freeze for civil servants in 1997, arguing that the treasury does not have the money and that the World Bank had insisted on curbing public spending. But the industrial court rejected the government's argument, concurring instead with the two public service unions that the wage freeze was illegal, a violation of workers' rights and a contravention of the government's policy on
liberalisation.
In rejecting the government's appeal, the court said inability an employer to pay is not a defence and should not be a ground for refusing to pay as the employer was under obligation to do so.
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