What go-slow? – management

MBABANE – Despite this publication being present during the go-slow action which started in the morning, EWSC has maintained that they know nothing about the go-slow.

This was despite a management team member stopping this reporter from taking pictures of the workers engaged in the said goslow. One of the managers said; “We would not want to see this in the paper and there are proper channels to be followed for this.”

Meanwhile Public Affairs and Customer Experience Manager Nomahlubi Matiwane said they were not aware of the go-slow by the staff. “EWSC is not aware of the purported go-slow by any of the EWSC staff. The corporation confirms that management is currently engaging all EWSC bargaining units regarding any and all labour related matters,” said Matiwane.

She also mentioned that EWSC was classified as an essential service provider in law, and its labour issues were dealt with as such.

Concerns

When asked if the employees had previously tried raising their concerns, Matiwane said management and staff enjoyed a harmonious relationship and management was confident that if there had been concerns, these would be resolved amicably through the relevant structures. She said EWSC management continues to engage all bargaining units.

Go-slow action seems to have hit the critical service providers as this publication on Monday reported that junior police officers and warders were planning to take advantage of the political unrest by staging a go-slow action, where according to their plan, they would report for work, but deliberately slack in duty or service.

Police officers under the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) and warders employed by His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS).

They said since 2014, they had been waiting for the implementation of a salary restructuring exercise and now some of them seem, to have become impatient and wanted to use the political unrest in the country to coerce government to give in to their demands.