State media said on Thursday that 40 Zimbabwean employees of the British embassy are engaged in a work slowdown to protest pay conditions and alleged racism.
Embassy spokesperson Gillian Dare denied the report carried by state radio and the government news agency.
President Robert Mugabe’s government has repeatedly used the state media to make accusations against Western diplomats, particularly those from Britain and the United States.
Thursday’s report said diplomats received a 500% cost-of-living allowance but Zimbabwean employees were forced to settle for a 40% increase after a year of negotiations.
Zimbabwe is in the midst of its biggest political and economic crisis since independence in 1980. Inflation during the year has reached as high as 620%.
The state media said morale is low among Zimbabwean employees at the embassy and that it has been worsened by racist behaviour by some white diplomats. It said the local employees have staged a go-slow protest and that the waiting time for a visa has increased from two to six weeks.
The government news agency also claimed local employees were forced to undergo HIV/Aids tests.
Dare denied there is a pay dispute or that employees are staging a work slowdown.
”On the contrary, in the past three weeks the average time for processing visa applications has dropped from 10 to three days because of the hard work and commitment of staff,” she said.
She added that HIV counselling is entirely voluntary, and denied any allegation of racism at the embassy.
”We strongly deny any charge of racism. The embassy is fully committed to the British government’s equal-opportunities policy,” Dare said.
In the past, Zimbabwean government ministers have accused British diplomats of smuggling opposition election material into the country and stage-managing the wrecking of white farms, while beaming the pictures to Western media from sophisticated overflying surveillance aircraft. — Sapa-AP