UNSTABLE JOB GROWTH, 842 RETRENCHED IN THREE MONTHS

MBABANE - Job growth has been unstable in the past three months as 842 workers were retrenched.

The economy lost some momentum in recent months with government failing to settle arrears with suppliers which have seen many go under and or minimising their personnel.

While this happened, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security approved the aforementioned figure from various sectors within the economy.
The hard hit industries that had to let go of many employees were the building and construction, funeral undertakers, retail, hairdressing, wholesale and distributive trades.

Also, the road transportation and security services had to let go of some of its human resource.
This is captured in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security Second Quarter Performance Report for the 2019/20 Financial Year.
The building and construction industry retrenched 19 employees due to financial constraints and completion of their projects while funeral undertakers had to let go of 15 employees as a result of restructuring.

Also, the retail, hairdressing, wholesale and distributive trades sold their businesses resulting in 74 people being left without a source of income. Meanwhile, under the road transportation sector, 24 people were rendered unemployed due to outsourcing.

Furthermore, the non-renewal of contracts saw 94 security services personnel being dismissed. Loss of funding, restructuring and closure of business further saw 616 people exiting the active employment in other sectors that were not disclosed by the ministry.
To deal with the loss of employment, the ministry, under its challenges, noted that there was a need for unemployment insurance fund that would cater for people who were in-between jobs, especially those affected by layoffs, retrenchments and redundancies.
The ministry also noted that there were no lay-offs and short-time stoppages during the period under review. However, there were five strikes that took place during the past three months.

Headlines

One of the strikes that hogged local and international headlines was that of the civil servants who were engaged in an eight-day industrial action against government.
The cause of the industrial action was a demand for a 7.85 per cent cost-of-living-adjustment (CoLA) by the public sector associations (PSAs) – who represent civil servants.

To this demand, government represented by the government negotiation team (GNT), extended a zero per cent offer citing fiscal challenges. Instead, government extended a three per cent flat offer that was to be implemented at the beginning of the next financial year – April 2020.
This did not augur well with the civil servants resulting in the boycott.

Also, there was a strike by the Eswatini Royal Insurance Corporation (ESRIC) employees, who wanted to have a salary review implemented.
Furthermore, there were 1 790 workers in the manufacturing and processing industry who were involved in two strike actions. This protest was in relation to a demand for a wage increase and conditions of service.

During the protest action, the employer lost 292 260 hours in production.
Also, there was a lockout in the textile and apparel sector wherein 420 employees were affected. The cause of the lockout was over the remittance of the Eswatini National Provident Fund (ENPF) monies.

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