UNESWA EMPLOYEES PICKET FOR 3%

MANZINI – University of Eswatini (UNESWA) employees have engaged in a picket demanding a three per cent cost-of-living adjustment, among other demands.

The picket was held at the institution’s Kwaluseni campus yesterday. 

The UNESWA employees from Luyengo, Mbabane and Kwaluseni campuses converged at the institution’s administration block during their lunch hour, where they submitted a list of demands for the administration to consider. Some of the main demands included the deduction of monies from their salaries which were allegedly not remitted to the intended financial services providers.

The UNESWA employees claimed that the university was deducting money from their salaries with an intention to service their personal loans and policies. However, they alleged that the money was never remitted to the relevant financial organisations.

Gripe

The employees, who are members of the National Workers Union of Swaziland Higher Institutions (NAWUSHI), highlighted that their gripe was that they were promised a salary review in 2016 by the then Minister of Education and Training Dr Phineas Magagula. However, they have not yet received a cost-of-living adjustment since then. 

During an interview with NAWUSHI Acting General Secretary Lee Madzinane, he disclosed that one of the biggest issues the institution and the employees faced was government’s failure to pay the subvention in full. He noted that in the first quarter alone, government was expected to pay a subvention of E97 million. 

However, he said government ended up paying that amount in installments of E17 million. This he said resulted in the institution’s failure to sustain the payment of salaries on a monthly basis.

“The institution had to meet the net salaries of each employee, with some employees seeing salary cuts. We have experienced the deduction of monies from our salaries, however, they have not been remitted to the intended financial service providers,” he said.

Madzinane explained that there were several workers who approached various financial service providers but were turned back as the institution had failed to pay them for a period of 12-14 months. He added that engagements with other financial service providers had proved futile, as word had spread that the institution failed to remit their monies.

Meanwhile, while addressing the employees, NAWUSHI President Samuel Shongwe said the employees were committing themselves to picket every Wednesdays, until their demands were met by the institution’s administration. He revealed that earlier this year, Parliament awarded the employees a cost-of-living adjustment of three per cent; however, they had not received it to date.

Increment

“What we are fighting for is not a salary increment; we are pleading for a cost-of-living adjustment, which will allow employees to have buying power, especially during these tough economic times,” he remarked.

Shongwe further revealed that if their demands were not addressed timeously, the union would be forced to table them in Parliament, where they hoped would be better received.

On the other hand, when engaged on the time period the employees’ demands would be addressed, UNESWA Registrar Dr Salebona Simelane said the institution could not commit to a time frame for the employees’ issues to be addressed.

“However, we received the list of demands and we are aware of the picketing that took place,” he said. 

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