Times Of Swaziland: CELEBRATIONS AFTER  CIVIL SERVANTS  AWARDED 4% COLA

CELEBRATIONS AFTER  CIVIL SERVANTS  AWARDED 4% COLA
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Sithembile Hlatshwayo and Stanley Khumalo on 04/07/2024 07:40:00


MBABANE – Some civil servants yesterday celebrated being awarded four per cent
CoLA, which they said would save their lives.
Their happiness was shared in their different social media platforms, such as
The SNAT platform, and also through this publication’s Facebook page. This
means the salaries of civil servants in the country will increase by four per
cent, which will be backdated to April 1, 2024, resulting in government
employees getting bumper pay at the end of this month.
The signing of the collective agreement happened yesterday morning during the
Joint Negotiations Forum (JNF), held at the Ministry of Public Service
Conference Room.
Public Sector Unions (PSUs) of Swaziland had initially tabled a 7.27 per cent
demand to the employer, for the 2024/25 cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA), while
government tabled three per cent. The PSUs are: National Public Service and
Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), Swaziland National Association of Teachers
(SNAT), Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) and Swaziland National
Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP).
Membership
PSUs represent about 21 535 public service workers, based on their four
unions’ membership updates, while the employer was represented by the
Government Negotiation Team (GNT).
The civil servants represented by the PSUs are a fraction of the 42 686 public
service workers, while the difference is characterised as un-unionisable
employees. These include senior government officials, politicians and members of
the State security forces. The PSUs last week presented their position paper,
where they supported their demand of 7.27 per cent, by stating that the country
had a 3.1 per cent growth of the economy in the past year and that inflation was
standing at 4.1 per cent.
They claimed that they had been receiving salary adjustments which were always
far below the true inflation in previous years.  As a result, they said the
salaries of workers had continued to be eroded due to the low yearly offers for
CoLA made by the employer. They had bemoaned that government was supposed to
implement the salary review in 2021, as per the July 6, 2016 order of the court,
but that had not happened to date, causing the workers to suffer more. The
unions had said the employer received a larger chunk from the Southern African
Customs Union (SACU), which in their understanding, could fund CoLA.
On the other hand, the employer said the wage bill was about E9 billion and
based on this, they could only afford three per cent. The GNT submitted, through
a position paper, that the wage bill remained the largest component of the
budget at 34 per cent of total expenditures. The employer said the wage bill was
10.4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
It was said while the wage bill had been contained at around E8 billion in the
past years; it had since reached the E9 billion mark, indicating continued
fiscal pressures for the country.
The GNT had argued that employment in some sectors, and the awarding of CoLA,
contributed to an increase in the wage bill in the 2023/24 financial year,
dampening the efforts to contain it and setting a much higher base in light of
the upcoming salary review in the next financial years.
However, despite these positions, which were stated by both parties, yesterday
they reached a compromise.  This was confirmed by SNAT President Mbongwa
Dlamini. He said this was an achievement; despite that there were gaps and the
difference was too little.  Also, Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of
Public Service Sipho Tsabedze, said following their meeting last week, they met
yesterday, where they agreed on the percentage.  Tsabedze said even though the
relief was too little, it was expected to make a difference. He said they were
happy that both parties had agreed on the percentage to be effected by the
employer.
The PS also explained that the collective agreement was that civil servants
would receive four per cent.  He clarified that unlike in previous years, where
the four per cent was partitioned into two folds with a once-off one per cent of
civil servants’ annual salary and a three per cent added to their
remuneration, this time around they agreed on four per cent.