PSAS WANT E6 000 ENTRY LEVEL IN REVIEWS

MANZINI - The stakes are high as PSAs expect the least paid civil servants to pocket 100 per cent pay rise from next year’s salary review.

Currently, the least paid civil servants get about E3 000 per month and public sector associations (PSAs) said a clearly crafted salary review report was expected to peg an entry level salary at E6 000. 

The Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General, Sikelela Dlamini, said their members understood that a salary review was meant to look into their salaries if they were at par with their work and demand of that time. 

Review 

In that regard, the unionist said they expected the salary review to be considerable of the fact that the last one was done during the 2016/17 financial year, after that, they spent three years without a salary review.

“Even this year (2020/21), we do not regard the three per cent salary adjustment. Instead, we view it as a compensation,” the secretary general of the teachers’ union said.

He said they regarded it as compensation because between the 2017/18  and 2019/20 financial years, the inflation rate decreased by about 20 per cent in terms of value as they were not given salary adjustments.

The unionist said it was in that regard that as civil servants they expected the salary review process to consider what had been happening in the past years. 

Again, he said in terms of allowances, the 2016/17 salary review made recommendations, which government said it would not implement because it did not have money to do so. 

For example, he said their members were getting E601 as housing allowance from the employer, yet the cheapest house was about E1 500. 

He said their members found themselves using their hard earned cash to pay the difference of E900 to avoid being locked out by landlords.

“We are expecting much improvement in terms of allowances in the salary review report and recommendations,” the teachers’ union secretary general said.

Agenda 

On the same note, President of the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), Oscar Nkambule, said when they engaged government at the round table this financial year, it did not want to discuss an agenda item that had to do with money, including the issue of allowances.

Therefore, he said, they managed to sign a collective agreement with government, which they took to court where it was endorsed as a court order. 

He said in the collective agreement, they agreed that government should implement the salary review report and recommendation as it was. 

Meanwhile, the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) President, Bheki Mamba, said first of all, the salary review process should deal with correct grading of workers. 

He said this was because they had noted that recently, the consultancy companies allegedly did not grade the workers, but instead duplicated what was done before and added the inflation rate.

Professional 

“We feel the consultancy companies have not been professional in doing the salary review process. In that regard, we want proper grading of our members,” Mamba said.

On top of that, he said the consultancy companies should consider the erosion which was done by the inflation rate to the workers’ salaries between 2017/18 and 2019/20, before making recommendations.

In terms of the much talked about allowances, Mamba concurred with the other PSA leaders that civil servants were using a portion of their already low salaries to pay for things which government was supposed to cater for. 

His argument was to the effect that in terms of housing allowances, the cheapest bedsitter was about E2 200, yet government gave their members about E800 housing allowance. 

He said this meant that their members were contributing more than the employer when paying rent, yet government was supposed to pay it in full.

Furthermore, he said the 2016/17 salary review made a recommendation that an occupation specifics dispensation (OSD) should be put in place so that it could be used to compensate healthcare workers with additional skills. However, he said government had not kick-started the process of forming the OSD and as a result, healthcare workers with different added specialities were not compensated.

In that regard, he said they would push that the coming salary review made the same recommendations. Thereafter, he said they would put pressure on government to put it in place.

Appeals 

On the other hand, the Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP) President, Eric Ndlovu, said even though they wanted the salary review like their equals, they wanted to conclude the issue of appeals for the 2016/17 salary review.

Meanwhile, the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service, Sipho Tsabedze, said he would not say much about the workers’ expectations. 

However, he mentioned that government wished to see its workers being satisfied in terms of being taken good care of by their employer. 

As a result, he said government was also willing to improve their terms of service, but he mentioned that the challenge would be its capacity to implement or make its wishes a reality.

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