Civil servants gets 3% CoLA again

MANZINI – Once again, government is dangling three per cent CoLA for the 2023/24 financial year to civil servants, who are expecting a review in their salaries.

The Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, revealed the government’s plan to offer civil servants three per cent costof-living adjustment (CoLA), for the upcoming financial year, when he delivered the budget speech yesterday.

Civil servants’ salaries were supposed to be reviewed last year as the last salary review exercise was implemented during the 2016/17 financial year. However, due to cash flow challenges, government pushed it to the upcoming financial year.

When delivering the budget speech, the minister announced that government had three per cent CoLA. However, he was quick to mention that they planned for this salaries adjustment fully understanding that a salary review exercise should take place and could affect this percentage.

Meanwhile, the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) Secretary General, Mayibongwe Masangane, said it was worrisome to learn of such developments through the budget speech.

Undermine

He said according to their analysis, the government of the day continued to undermine the Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF). He said this was because such issues (of CoLA) should be discussed by the employer and the unions at the round table.

“We have a policy that says there should be a collective agreement before anything can be said on the matter by any government department,” the unionist said.

On another note, he said the three per cent was small considering that even last year, government failed to come closer to the real inflation as it offered the same amount, plus a once off payment of a per cent of

“To us, it is clear that government does not value workers. It’s a pity that this year we were expecting the salary review, but the employer has now shifted the focus to CoLA,” Masangane said.

He argued that they had agreed with the employer that this year would be an implementation year for the salary review, given that it had been a long time since the last one.

On the same note, the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General, Lot Vilakati, said it was disturbing to learn that the Minister of Finance was now part of government negotiations team (GNT) as he was talking about items which were supposed to be discussed at the JNF. their annual salary.

Discussed

He added that the JNF agenda for 2023/24 had not been discussed, but the minister was already talking about items which were supposed to be in it (agenda). He said, first of all, it was a given that in a salary review year, CoLA would be included in the review money.

“We are shocked at how the minister publicly announced three per cent CoLA when not long ago, junior security officers were awarded four per cent salary cushion,” Vilakati said.

Thereafter, he said they were expecting nothing else but salary review in the upcoming financial year.

It is worth noting that even last year, the minister announced during the budget speech that government had budgeted E220 million for civil servants CoLA. Even then, civil servants, through the Public Sector Unions (PSUs) of Swaziland, mentioned that they were not interested in CoLA, but they expected a salary review exercise. However, after negotiations, they ended up getting three per cent CoLA and a once-off payment of three per cent of the annual salary.