Link salaries to performance, not presidential proclamations

May Day 2022 in Tanzania was an affair to remember.

It came amidst a flurry of activities and high expectations among civil servants who, having drawn a blank for six years, were hoping that this was their year.

They had a good reason. On that very day last year, less than 60 days after coming into office, President Samia Suluhu Hassan gave a promise that salaries would be increased this year. So, workers from all over the nation turned up at Jamhuri Stadium in Dodoma in numbers, hoping to hear those magical words. But, alas, this wasn’t their year once again. Speaking from Jamhuri Stadium, the President announced that “that thing of ours still applies”, saying that some calculations need to be finalised before salaries can be raised.

Whatever you think of President Hassan you have to give it to her at how good she has become at playing the political game. Our thing. Cosa Nostra. Mario Puzzo would have been proud, but the netizens were not so amused. They erupted in anger, arguing that May Day doesn’t come by surprise. So, why didn’t the government complete the calculations before the day?

That excuse, of course, was quite weak. Given the context, there must have been something quite pressing to make the President renege, albeit temporarily, on her promise.

But why do people feel so entitled to a salary increase because of May Day?

Historically, May Day has been used to organise strikes and demonstrations in favour of workers’ rights around the world. While that probably developed a deeply ingrained feeling of entitlement, it is questionable whether such a world view is compatible with best practices.

The origin of May Day is intimately linked with the struggle for shorter workday in the 1800s. In 1884, the American Federation of Labor called for strikes in the US and Canada on May 1, 1886. In some cities, some industrialists organised counter movements, making the situation edgy. Following a May 1 event in Chicago, a bomb exploded at the Haymarket Square three days later, killing seven police officers, thus leading to seven agitators being sentenced to death. The affair had significant influence on international labour movements, making May First popular.

In 1889, an international congress of socialist parties in Paris made May Day 1890 an “international day…to demand the legal reduction of the working day to eight hours”. May Day became international.

Following that success, Marxists quickly realised May Day’s potential. May Day became a “demonstration and fighting tactic for the eight-hour day, world peace, and Socialism”. Russia’s communist revolution and the ensuing conquest of one third of the world into communism made May Day one of the biggest days in their calendars – a day to flaunt, among others things, their military powers

This is partly the tradition that Tanzania inherited – and Mei Mosi became a big affair in Tanzania too. However, when the USSR collapsed, May Day celebrations faced an ideological crisis. Is it possible to pursue workers’ rights without being stuck in ideological quagmires?

This is only possible by adopting a completely different paradigm.

In the old paradigm, salary increments are automatic and job security is guaranteed by law. In such a paradigm, unions are antagonistic, often defending mediocrity in the name of workers’ rights. But in the new paradigm, any salary increase is dependent on performance and job security is guaranteed by individual competitiveness. With this paradigm, unions understand that mediocrity is bad for everyone, so leaders learn to see the 360 degree perspective.

This changes everything.

For example, in a nation where student failure rates are extremely high, where state-owned organisations survive on subsidies, where bureaucracy strangles business, where panya road terrorise neighbourhoods, where power and water outages are the norm, how can rational adults dare to gang up around the President looking for salary increases? They should be satisfied that they have jobs at all.

It is high time salary increases be delinked from May Days. Let people be remunerated on the basis of their achievements in office. For example, salary increments based on the number of students getting A’s and B’s, the number of new subscribers added, the amount of OPEX decreased, or new revenues earned.

This is how you make things interesting.

That said, there is yet another reason for not associating salaries with May Day – sometimes the government has very valid reasons to avoid wholesale salary increases.

In the latest CAG report, some signals indicate that the government is struggling financially. Some institutions use up to 90 percent of their budget allocations for HR-related expenses only, leaving everything else untouched. In such a situation, the prospects of adding another $50 or $100 million to the government’s monthly burden is fiscally contraindicated. So, this may be the time to reflect on the situation.

To conclude, when it comes to economic growth, socialist thinking is bad news. Tanzanians need to embrace competition and innovation, and let go of old fashioned collectivist thinking. Let the struggle for workers’ rights continue – but never at the expense of progress.

That’s too high a price to pay.