Public sector’s bid to stop CoLA agremment begins
MANZINI - Public sector unions (PSUs) of Eswatini have kick-started a move to try and stop government from processing the CoLA agreement which it signed with EPA.
On Monday government, through the Minister of Public Service, Mabulala Maseko issued a statement that stated that in terms of the 2022/23 cost of living adjustment (CoLA), the government negotiation team (GNT) and Eswatini Principal Association (EPA) signed a collective agreement on June 27, 2022. The minister said they agreed to implement three per cent of monthly basic salary across the board, with effect from April 1, 2022, plus a once-off payment of one per cent of annual basic salary.
development
Following this development, the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) hosted a mass meeting for the Swaziland Association of Schools Administrators (SASA), which is a union for head teachers and deputies who were under the teachers’ trade union. The meeting was held at SNAT Centre yesterday.
During the meeting, SNAT Secretary General (SG) Sikelela Dlamini told the membership of SASA that they were working on collecting concrete evidence to build a prima facie which would see them successfully applying for a court interdict, which would stop government from implementing the CoLA agreement because it signed with an allegedly ‘illegitimate child’.
This was confirmed by the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) SG, Mayibongwe
Masangane, who is a member of the PSUs secretariat. He said they were working on this matter together as PSUs.
He highlighted to the membership of SASA that they were working against the clock to compile the evidence as soon as possible and file the application so that they could get a court interdict before government runs its payroll for the month (July 2022).
He mentioned that their sources within government, especially in the treasury department promised to update them on when the payroll would be processed so that they could ensure that they get the interdict on time. Worth noting is that government is planning to implement the collective agreement this month, by paying all un-unionised civil servants.
In that regard, the teachers’ union SG told the SASA members that they would need their cooperation as they believed that they might have information that could be useful in compiling the evidence they need.
Notably, from time to time, the SG of the teachers’ union was seen talking to the phone and he apologised to the meeting for the disturbances.
He said he was still busy talking to their legal team as they were racing against time.
applauded
In response, the members of SASA applauded SNAT and its partners for the idea and agreed that they would be part of it. They said they would start by cooperating with SNAT whenever they were needed.
They made it clear that they were supporting the idea of applying for a court interdict because as head teachers and deputies, who are organised under SASA, they distanced themselves from the collective agreement which was signed by EPA and government.
“We are doing this because we cannot accept the CoLA offer of three per cent and once-off payment of one per cent of their annual salary when the matter had not been discussed at the Joint Negotiations Forum (JNF) and not signed by the PSUs,” they said.
They highlighted that according to their understanding, which was in accordance with the updates they were getting for the PSUs, was that they (unions) deadlocked with government regarding the JNF agenda, which meant that no agenda item had been discussed.
The issue of the JNF agenda is pending before the Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CMAC).
However, other members of the association of schools’ administrators wanted to know if government would respect the court interdict. Their argument was that in July 2016, PSUs of Eswatini signed a collective agreement with government that in 2021, it should conduct and implement a salary review exercise in a bid to compel
government to stick to it, the arrangement was made a court order. However, they said they were in 2022 now and the salary review exercise was neither conducted nor implemented.
“What guarantee do we have that government will enforce the interdict,” they wondered.
In response, the teachers’ union SG said they were aware of the July 2016 collective agreement, which was later made a court order. However, he pointed out in 2020, there was an outbreak of COVID-19, which was declared as a national disaster and government used the pandemic as its defence to justify that it was incapable of conducting and implementing the salary review exercise.
implement
He said even though they believed that government had the financial power to conduct and implement the salary review, there was nothing they could do because once a national state of emergency was declared, most people’s rights are lost, like it happened with gatherings.
Once more, he said like many other people, they also believed that courts in the country were not independent. However, he said that does not mean that they should not take that direction in their struggle.
“Sometimes, we need to take this direction to prove to emaSwati and the world that nothing can just happen for them as workers under the current system of governance – Tinkhundla,” the unionist said.
It is worth noting that the move by government to award civil servants who are not members of trade unions under PSU the CoLA of three per cent and a once off payment of one per cent of their annual salaries, left civil servants divided. The PSUs and Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) labelled this as union bashing.