GOVT SPENDS E85 MILLION FOR SALARY REVIEW APPEALS

MANZINI – Government has supposedly spent E85 million meant to reimburse civil servants, following appeals raised in the 2016 salary review exercise, on COVID-19 related needs.

The news, which left public sector associations (PSAs) seething with anger, was delivered by the government negotiation team (GNT) during the joint negotiation forum (JNF), which was held virtually yesterday. 

The GNT represents government at the round table, while civil servants’ interests are presented by the PSAs.

A well-placed source within the unions, said following the number of appeals which were filed with government after the implementation of the 2016 salary review recommendations, the agreement between the two parties was that its review should be concluded during the 2017/18 financial year. 

Mainly, the appeals were about civil servants who were placed at lower paying scales by the salary review recommendations while some of the complaints were about different pay grades for the same jobs.

Agreement

However, the source said despite the aforementioned agreement, the matter dragged for three financial years (2017/18/19/20). 

The delay was said to have been caused by the fact that the pair was simultaneously having negotiations on the cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA).

In these three consecutive years, government tabled zero per cent for CoLA; which resulted in the PSAs and GNT abandoning talks as the former did not budge on the latter’s demand. 

As this was happening, indirectly it affected the negotiations on the appeals as they ended up not being discussed.

“This was solely because after reaching a deadlock on CoLA, the roundtable was suspended as the PSAs led civil servants in preparing for industrial actions and the actual strike actions over salary adjustment,” the impeccable source said.

Therefore, he said when the PSAs crafted the JNF agenda for the 2020/21 financial year with the GNT; they listed the appeals issue among the first agenda items. 

In fact, he said it was the second one on the agenda, after CoLA. The source said this was meant to ensure that this time around, it was discussed, given that it was a thorn in the flesh for their members.

Nevertheless, they said when it was time to address the appeals, government said it was facing cash liquidity challenges and requested not to engage the services of a consultant because it would be costly.

Instead, he claimed that government sought that the appeals be dealt with in-house, by using the Management Service Department (MSD), which is a department within the Ministry of Public Service. 

The MSD is an organ that manages the civil service.  

“Government claimed to have reserved a sum of E85 million to cater for the appeals and it promised to give the PSA leaders periodical feedback about developments on the matter,” the source claimed.

Despite this commitment, the source claimed that they did not get any feedback such that in yesterday’s JNF, the unions demanded to establish progress by the MSD in terms of dealing with the appeals. 

This, he said, was when the GNT relayed to the PSA leaders, point blank, that the MSD could not continue with the appeals process as there was no money available to cater for it.

“When the unionists asked where the E85 million which was reserved for the exercise was, the GNT told them that it was used (in December 2020) towards the fight against COVID-19,” the insider said.

The PSAs, through the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) President, Mbongwa Dlamini, confirmed the latest developments. He said the response they got from government was that the E85 million which was reserved for the salary review appeals of their members had been used in the fight against COVID-19, something which did not sit well with them.

The leader of the teachers’ union said there was nothing they could do, besides calling for an end to the meeting. He said their next assignment was to update their members and it would be the general membership who would decide on the next step. 

Doomed

Meanwhile, Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP) President Eric Ndlovu said what he could say was that the country was doomed. Thereafter, he asked to be given time to report to the union’s national executive committee (NEC) before giving a comment.

On the same note, the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service, Sipho Tsabedze, who is also the chief negotiator, confirmed that government had challenges with finances. 

He said government’s focus was on ensuring that the nation survived the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Government has to ensure that emaSwati survive this pandemic,” the PS emphasised. He said this was a difficult situation because when a country was at war, it channelled all its resources towards winning the battle. Therefore, he said the available minimal resources which government had, were channelled towards the fight against COVID-19.

When he was specifically asked if government had used the money that was reserved to cater for the appeals of civil servants, in the fight against COVD-19, the PS maintained that the administration took the available minimal resources it had and channelled them towards the fight against COVID-19.

Some of the notable appeals included that of primary school head teachers who were paid lower than their counterparts in high school, yet they did the same job. The appeal was that the primary school head teachers’ salaries should be increased to match those of their equals in high school.

On the same note, primary school teachers with a Diploma in Teaching were paid better than teachers in the same level who had Primary Teachers Certificates, yet they were doing the same job. 

Again, there are appeals that some civil servants were poorly graded and should be elevated to a pay grade they deserve. In fact, all the four members of PSAs, SNAT, National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) and SNAGAP, submitted different appeals.

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