JNF resumes next week
MANZINI – Negotiations on civil servants’ bread and butter issues shall resume next week, following a five month break.
The Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF) will resume on February 7, 2024, where civil servants will be represented by the Public Sector Unions (PSUs) of Swaziland, while the employer will be represented by the Government Negotiating Team (GNT).
The PSUs who are the National Public Services and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU), Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP) and Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) and they represent about 21 535 public service workers based on their four unions’ membership updates which is a fraction of the 42 686 civil servants, according to the Establishment Register for the financial year 2023/24.
The resuming of the JNF sitting follows that the PSUs wrote a letter to the Chairperson, Sipho Tsabedze, informing him that they would be at the Ministry of Public Service Boardroom, ready to negotiate, on January 24, 2024 at 10am. They claimed that their decision was informed by the presence of Cabinet, the prime minister (PM) and the fact that the 2023/24 financial year was about to end, yet there were many pending items on the agenda.
It is worth noting that for almost five months, the JNF had been suspended because there were no Cabinet ministers, given that the term of office for the 11th Parliament ended in June last year. Cabinet ministers are the ones who give the mandate to the GNT on any offers to extend to the PSUs demands emanating from the negotiations.
On the other hand, Tsabedze, who is also the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service, proposed that the meeting be held next Wednesday in his portfolio’s conference room.
This was confirmed by the SNAT Secretary General Lot Vilakati. He said they had been informed that the sitting would be next week. He said their anticipation this year was that they would engage through the JNF and did not expect any interference from politicians.
Vilakati said they were expecting to conclude their negotiations on the allowances. It is worth noting that civil servants’ unions have been at loggerheads with the employer since the 2016 Salary Review Report was issued regarding the allowances.
This is because the employer requested to defer the revised allowances due to fiscal challenges and the status quo has been the same for the past seven years.
Presently, civil servants are paid a subsistence allowance at E15.50 for grades C2-C5. The recommendation made for this grade was E65. This means at present, there is a shortfall of E49.50.
Also, short distances cost E10 (within 10 kilometres) and civil servants currently get a commuting allowance of 17 cents per kilometre. The recommendation which was made in 2016, for this allowance was 62 cents per kilometre. It was also recommended that the limitation of six-kilometre radius from their places of abode should be done away with.
On the housing allowance, civil servants seek to be afforded E3 000 per month for those earning grades C4-C5, D1 – D5. It is further their demand, that those graded between C1-C3 should be accommodated at E1 500 per month while lower earning civil servants in grades A1-A3, B1-B2 should be accorded E800.
These demands, which are aligned to the consultant of the 2016 Salary Review, are a hike from the current housing allowance of E618 per month paid accorded to them by the employer.
Furthermore, the unions submitted that all civil servants should be accorded plain-clothes allowance at E300. The current status is that only the police officers (criminal investigation department) are paid this allowance. The unions’ recommendation is that E300 per civil servant should be paid per month.
On the other hand, the unions seek that civil servants should be afforded hardship allowance. This form of allowance is currently not in place; however, the consultant recommended five per cent of the basic salary.