Civil servants’ ultimatum over salary review
MAKHEWU – Over 200 civil servants yesterday gave government a two-week ultimatum to address their salary review demands.
Public sector unions are currently on a countrywide consultation exercise to get the views and inputs of their members on the issues on the table comprising salary review, cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA), Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF) agenda, appeals and allowances and skewed negotiations on their demands on improved housing allowances from E600 to E1 500.
Demands
Yesterday, former Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) Deputy President and Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) member Simangele Mthethwa told the civil servants that government should give definitive answers on their demands within a period of two weeks. She explained that since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, and the escalating war between Ukraine and Russia, commodities had skyrocketed, hence the need for government to consider their plight. Those in attendance comprised of civil servants from government ministries, nurses, teachers and accountants to mention a few. Mthethwa said government was supposed to address the issue of the salary review as it had lagged for almost six years considering that their welfare has been neglected by government.
She said there were appeals on allowances that had been raised by civil servants since 2015, but government had failed to attend to them.
Attention
“Today, we are here to consult with civil servants so that their input could be forwarded to the leaders who are part of the JNF. Government has only waived the CoLA issue, yet there are a litany of issues that needed its attention. We have given government two weeks to respond to our demands,” she said.
Adding, Mthethwa said failure for government to address their grievances would result in a mass action.
“We have mandated our leaders that government’s failure to give full attention to our grievances will lead to us aggrieved workers to embark in a mass strike to be joined by other forces like the transport sector,” she concluded.