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MANZINI – The Minister of Public Service, Mabulala Maseko, needs to consult previous office bearers of his ministry on negotiations, says Sikelela Dlamini.

Dlamini, who is a member of the Secretariat of the Public Sector Unions (PSUs) of Swaziland, said Maseko needed to be brought up to speed on some of the joint negotiation forum (JNF) issues so that he could understand that they were intertwined with the Industrial Relations Act and the recognition agreements of the unions. He said this would answer some of the challenges Maseko seemingly had in understanding that the deadlock was not stalling the negotiations, but was an act that needed to be followed as provided by law.

Agenda

The Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) secretary general said the deadlock was brought about by the failure by the parties to agree on the agenda, which was from their perspective important in the manner in which they presented it. “If we were to follow what the minister is saying, many civil servants would be disadvantaged as the allowances would be accommodated in the next salary review as they are,” Dlamini said.

He said the same would apply to the 2016 appeals, as the public service workers who lodged appeals would still experience the same challenges. The unionist said it was for this reason that they sought these issues to be addressed first.

On the issue of depleting PSUs coffers through prolonged negotiations, Dlamini said they did not get sitting allowances for the negotiations, but were offered travelling allowances and lunch; so they were not benefitting at all, given that these two items were budgeted for in their financials.

Understanding

Dlamini said according to their understanding, which was in accordance with the updates they were getting from 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).

It is worth noting that the move by government to award civil servants who are not members of trade unions under PSUs 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.