Junior officers at Immigration and Citizenship Services Department are demanding their superiors in the department and the line ministry to give them promote and risk allowances in the face of Covid-19 pandemic.
According to a letter addressed to the senior officers, the lowly ranked officers are demanding promotions; arguing that some of them have not been promoted since they joined the department in 2012, risk allowances and fair treatment by their superiors.
Commenting on the matter, Spokesperson for the Department, Joseph Chauwa, said the matters raised by the concerned officers are already being looked into and that there is no cause for concern.
“All the issues that were raised in the forums are issues that already being handled by responsible officers. In terms of promotions, there is function review that we are working on and the matters to do with promotions and training of other officers are being handled case by case by responsible officers. And that also involve other stakeholders and in the case of promotions, we are talking of Department of Human Resource Management and Development,” Chauwa said.
On Monday, the junior officers from all the four regional offices in the country engaged responsible officers from the Ministry of Homeland Affairs in a meeting to chart the way forward.
The junior officers have indicated that they will embark on industrial action if the ministry does not respond to their demands by Wednesday 13 May, 2020.
Recently, government effected promotions in the Prison Services Department, Malawi Police Services and the Malawi Defense Force, but not in the Immigration and Citizenship Services.
