Withdrawal of Circular No.1 would be best Xmas gift - SFL

MBABANE – The Swaziland Federation of Labour (SFL) says the best gift for Christmas from government would be the withdrawal of the Circular No.1.

In an end of year statement issued yesterday through its Secretary General Vincent Ncongwane, the SFL said for this year’s Christmas and New Year messages the workers of the Kingdom of Swaziland, which is presently facing trying times financially, cannot be the only ones to tighten belts.

"To help bring this country from the brink of disaster that it has been led to among other things, through what we have referred to above and worsened by the general worldwide economic collapse, one proposes cost cutting," he said.

He said the state of the nation’s finances calls for the withdrawal of Circular No. 1 of 2010.　

"As workers we know that in circumstances such as these that we are facing today, it does result in some of our colleagues losing jobs. That has happened many a times with restructuring processes. However you do not improve the perks of those in power on one hand while on the other you intend to retrench the ordinary workers," he said.

The SFL also proposes that government improves the productivity of the civil service by engaging the public service unions to deal with the challenges of delivery from that quarter and set out a programme of action to deal with these challenges, a mere cut in jobs may not be the answer. "Once government has gone even for the hard tasks in its cost cutting exercises, then it can talk about reducing headcount," he said.

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