3% CoLA stopped ‹‘‹•‡† ™‘”‡”•ǯ •ƒŽƒ”› ”‡˜‹‡™ –ƒŽ• ‡š– ‘–Š

MANZINI – As the Circular granting the cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) has been issued for un-unionised civil servants, negotiations on this item with unions will be held next month.

This is because yesterday, the Public Sector Unions (PSUs) of Swaziland and the Government Negotiating Team (GNT), started their negotiations on the agenda.

The agenda of the negotiations for this financial year in its order of priority is as follows: finalisation of the negotiations framework, salary review/ allowances and then the cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA).

Secretary General of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) Mayibongwe Masangane, said yesterday the parties started their negotiations on the framework. The civil servants are negotiating for the JNF to have the negotiations in a neutral venue with an independent chairperson and independent secretariat.

This, they believe, would result in transparent negotiations where both parties would not be holding a position through the chairperson while also the tone of the minutes of the meeting would be objective.

Currently, the Chairperson of the JNF is the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service, Sipho Tsabedze, while the negotiations are held at the boardroom of the Ministry of Public Service, and the secretariat is from government.

Masangane said yesterday the framework negotiations could not be concluded; but it was agreed that the next item to be discussed in the next sitting would be appeals from the 2016 salary review, which would run for three months.

He said on the subsequent sitting of the JNF, they would also present position papers on the terms of reference (TORs) of the salary review as this was not done yesterday. “The third sitting could be that of CoLA, which by the look of things may be in September,” Masangane said.

It is worth noting that the JNF sittings are held on Wednesdays, unless there is an emergency which results in the PSUs and GNT not forming a quorum.

The JNF framework is an item that has been carried forward from the previous financial year. The PSUs have been raising a concern that the current structure of the JNF is not convenient for them as representatives of civil servants.

Retrench

In the last financial year, the negotiations on the JNF framework followed a declaration by government that it could not afford a salary review. Government reportedly said if PSUs persisted with seeking the salary review, it would have no choice but to retrench.

The PS in the Ministry of Public Service at the time said if government were to be forced to carry out the salary review, it would have no choice, but to retrench a huge number of civil servants in order to accommodate the review. He said it was not so much about the numbers.

Meanwhile, a Circular which allows qualifying civil servants to get the three per cent CoLA, has been handed over to the Ministry of Finance. This follows that last month; the three per cent CoLA and once-off payment of one per cent of their annual basic salary was not implemented due to technicalities.

The technicalities included that a Circular instructing the Ministry of Finance to effect the reviewed scale for un-unionisable civil servants was not submitted on time.

Also, the Ministry of Public Service said unlike in previous years, wherein the adjustments were received by all civil servants in government’s payroll, this time they had to separate them as not all had signed a collective agreement.

Communication Officer in the Ministry of Finance Setsabile Dlamini, on whether they had received the instrument instructing them to modify the remuneration scales, confirmed that the ministry had received the Circular from the Ministry of Public Service with the new salary scales.

The Circular, she said, was directed to the Treasury Department.

According to impeccable sources at the Treasury Department, the submission of the Circular meant that when the payroll was run, the new scale would be effected. The sources said this was a sign that there was a new remuneration structure.

The implementation of the three per cent CoLA and once-off payment of one per cent of their annual basic salary is subsequent to the pronouncement by the Minister of Public Service, Mabulala Maseko, on July 4, 2022.

Our members acted right - SASA

MBABANE – Swaziland Association of Schools Administrators (SASA) Secretary General Siphasha Dlamini says they are not sure of the safety assurance by government. Siphasha alleged that lately, police were not responding to crime scenes. She said school heads consulted with the relevant structures and reported the situation before taking any decision. “Any teacher that sees a threat to pupils or by the pupils themselves is duty-bound to take action to prevent that danger.”

Siphasha said she believed all the head teachers that took action meant to protect the property of the schools. She said past experience had taught them, hence it was expected for the head teachers to act in defence of protecting government property and lives which could not be replaced.