The strike is a major test for the power-sharing government of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, two long-time foes who came together last year to end a long-running political crisis.
On Wednesday, the country's three main unions representing government employees, surviving on a monthly salary of $160, said they would down tools within the next two weeks if their demands for a minimum wage of $630 were not met.
But the government does not have that money and will not be able to meet the demands, analysts said.
"There is no such kind of money in the country. One understands the predicament the employees are in but at same time the reality is that their demands cannot be met," John Robertson, an economic consultant said.
If the strike goes ahead, it would be the first against the coalition government by the employees, who include teachers and nurses.
Since the formation of the unity government, teachers had returned to work while state hospitals were admitting patients again as nurses and junior doctors resumed their duties.
Zimbabwe had in the past few years saw strikes by nurses and state doctors over low wages while teachers abandoned classes to take up jobs in neighbouring South Africa and Botswana, undermining what has for the past thirty years been one of the best education systems in the world.
But the government, grappling to convince international donors to pump $10 billion for the economy to fully recover, finds itself having to cajole the employees in the next two weeks to stop the damaging strike from going ahead.
The government is already under pressure from supporters of the two main political parties, ZANU PF and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) over the slow implementation of the September 15 2008 political agreement, which critics blame for slowing inflows of donor money.
"This (strike action) was always going to happen. There has been a lot of expectation on the delivery of this government but people now realise that it will take a long time before the economy fully recovers to sustain such wage demands," John Makumbe, a political commentator and a critic of Mugabe's rule said.
"Nonetheless it is bad news for those in government, certainly for the MDC, who all along have enjoyed goodwill. They risk being painted with the same brush as ZANU PF,” he added.
Zimbabwe’s government wage bill gobbles up 60 percent of total collected revenues but constrained inflows from taxes makes it difficult for any significant wage hikes.
The government says it can only offer a top salary of $236, which has been rejected by the state employees, whose unions say they have no choice but to strike to press for more pay.
"Our members are suffering, we cannot pay our bills, the tariffs are higher than our wages," Cecilia Alexander, president of the Public Service Association, an umbrella body for all civil servants said this week.
Teachers in government schools have been attending classes but were not conducting lessons in protest against the slow pace of wage negotiations with the government.
The coalition government says it has managed to stabilise the economy, mainly by dumping a worthless Zimbabwe dollar that was decimated by inflation, which peaked at 500 billion percent in December 2008.
The economy grew 4.7 percent last year, the first time in a decade and growth is expected to quicken to 7 percent this year while inflation remains in single digits.
Investors and Western donors are, however, holding out for signs that the unity government will last and watching if Mugabe is ready to genuinely share power with Tsvangirai and institute broad reforms.
“I think they should just resolve this amicably, the workers should also understand that the government is struggling to raise money so they should temper their demands,” said Mercy Makoni, a mother of three whose two daughters attend government schools.
“No one once to go back to 2008, that would be very sad for our education sector,” she said. – ZimOnline
