Times Of Swaziland: UNESWA WORKERS’ SALARIES DELAYED AGAIN

UNESWA WORKERS’ SALARIES DELAYED AGAIN
================================================================================
Phiwase Phungwayo on 19/10/2022 07:22:00


MANZINI – Yet another delayed payment of salaries for University of Eswatini
(UNESWA) employees.
The university has issued an internal memo notifying the employees about the
delay. Released by the Registrar, Dr Salebona Simelane yesterday, he highlighted
that the October 2022 staff salaries will be delayed due to shortage of funds.
Dr Simelane said efforts to address the matter were underway. The registrar
stated that any inconvenience caused was regretted. He did not divulge further
on the matter. Worth noting is that UNESWA employees get remunerated on the 19th
of every month. In August, the university released a memo notifying employees
about the delay in salaries. Dr Simelane attributed the delay to insufficient
financial resources. However, he assured that every effort would be made to
ensure that the salaries were paid by next Friday August 26, 2022.
Unacceptable
Meanwhile, the Association of Lecturers, Academic and Administrative Personnel
(ALAAP) General Secretary (SG), Dr Mduduzi Shongwe said the association noted
with disappointment the contents, having said it was unacceptable to the
hardworking members of the ALAAP. Shongwe stated that it was deplorable that
such communication was made on the eve of pay day, which caught members off
guard.“This will cause serious prejudice and repercussions to members, both
financially and psychologically. Consequently, ALAAP views your emorandum with
the highest contempt it deserves,” he said.
The SG further highlighted that not only was management’s conduct unlawful and
inhumane, but also violated the terms and conditions of service.
“For this reason, should ALAAP members not get their well deserved
remuneration on time, it will be regrettably impossible for them to execute
their duties,” Dr Shongwe said. Further, he disclosed that following
negotiations on cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) with the university about a
fortnight ago, they did not find each other on the negotiations table. Shongwe
said the reason was that members stated that they were willing to go down to
three per cent and accept, only if they notched. He noted that members had not
notched since 2018.
The SG also disclosed that in response, management stated that they had no money
for notching and that was where they did not see eye-to-eye.
“Therefore, we entered a cooling off period of 14 days, which ended yesterday.
Our Recognition Agreement says after the 14 days, we have to meet again to see
if we now find each other. We have been asking for that meeting since last week,
management is now refusing to commit on a meeting date,” he said. Meanwhile,
Dr Shongwe alluded that they would continue with lunch pickets to express their
dissatisfaction with the stalling of the talks at the negotiations table. He
said they would consult members to recharge the mandate on what to do if
management continued to avoid the table.
“Otherwise, if in the next meeting, we still don’t find each other, we have
to agree on a deadlock and then we go back to our members to get a mandate to
start the Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CMAC) process that builds
towards a legal strike. We honestly don’t want to get there as we believe we
can still find each other if we negotiate,” he mentioned.