NO SALARY REVIEW AS GOVT PLEADS INSOLVENCY

MANZINI – A highly anticipated ‘dvuladvula’ for civil servants is seemingly nothing, but a mirage.

This is because the anticipated talks that were envisaged to begin for the 2021 salary review exercise will not take off as government is said to have pleaded insolvency.

The salary review was expected to commence this year following that of 2016, wherein civil servants were awarded between 14 – 32 per cent increments. In the last negotiations of the salary review, politicians and the Judiciary benefitted the most. They were awarded 32 per cent; despite that the country was facing a financial crunch.

The news that the salary review may not take off was relayed to public sector associations (PSAs) by the government negotiation team (GNT) during the joint negotiation forum (JNF), which was held virtually on Wednesday.

Appeals

An impeccable source within the trade unions said after the PSA leaders received the news that E85 million which was reserved for their members’ 2016 salary review appeals was used by government on COVID-19-related needs, they wanted to know how far the employer had gone in preparing for the 2021 salary review exercise.

The impeccable source said the response they received was that government did not have money for the exercise and as such, it would not be held, until the economic situation improved. 

Worth noting is that government has been facing fiscal challenges dating back to 2017, which were inherited by the incumbent Cabinet. The challenges have since been exacerbated by the advent of the coronavirus of which has had segments of partial lockdowns limiting trade and in turn affecting the country’s revenue.

Meanwhile, another impeccable insider claimed that the PSA leaders were also told that even in the 2021/22 national budget, which would be delivered today by the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, no money would be allocated for the exercise.

The Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP) President, Eric Ndlovu confirmed the matter. He said according to their analysis, government was postponing the salary review exercise.

“The painful part is that it was postponing it indefinitely,” Ndlovu said.

Again, the leader of SNAGAP said another agonising thing was that just like the E85 million for the 2016 salary review appeals, the issue of the 2021 salary review process was agreed upon during the 2016/17 JNF talks. 

As such, he said as civil servants, the salary review process was their last hope as they did not get cost-of-living-adjustment (CoLA) for three consecutive financial years (2017/18/19/20). He highlighted that this was a double blow for the members who were supposed to be reimbursed using the E85 million for appealing their pay grades of the 2016 salary review. The president said as government accounting personnel, they were not classified as essential workers, but they reported for duty and civil servants always got their pay on time. He added that a lot of emaSwati would suffer as most families in the country were supported by civil servants, who would no longer have buying power.

“Kubuhlungu (it is painful) because we will be literally living from hand to mouth,” Ndlovu said. Also, the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) President, Mbongwa Dlamini, said according to their analysis, government was using COVID-19 as a scapegoat to deviate from its responsibilities and for its failure to deliver as expected.

“It is clear that government does not take us seriously. It does not value us,” the leader of the teachers’ union said.

His argument was that if government valued them, it would have concluded the 2016 salary review appeals during the 2017/18 negotiations as per the initial agreement they signed. 

Furthermore, he said the issue of the 2021 salary review was among the agenda items in the 2020/21 JNF and on October 28, 2020, they agreed that in the following meeting, which was supposed to be held on November 8, 2020, they were supposed to finalise the timelines for the exercise and implementation of this salary review. However, the president of the teachers’ union said they never met as government used the COVID-19 as an excuse for not convening the JNF. 

“Even now, we believe that government only convened the round table because it wanted  us to discuss the Performance Management System (PMS),” Dlamini said. It is worth noting that the PMS was not discussed as PSAs argued that the JNF should stick to the agenda, which had two issues remaining; 2016 salary review appeals and quality public service delivery.

Meanwhile, the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service, Sipho Tsabedze, who doubles as the Chief Negotiator at the JNF, said the issue of 2021 salary review was introduced during their meeting on Wednesday.

This publication asked if the GNT indeed told the PSA leaders that government did not have money for the salary review and that it would not held it this year. However, the PS asked to end by saying the issue was only introduced during the meeting and it was yet to be discussed.

However, a well-placed source within government mentioned that the situation at hand did not allow government to carry on with the salary review this financial year. He added that even in the budget speech for 2021/22, there would be no allocation for the exercise.

Budget 

Worth mentioning is the fact that, on Wednesday, SNAT Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini released a statement about the union’s shadow budget, which was supported by the other unions under PSAs. In the shadow budget, the teachers’ union’s secretary general said they were expecting the minister of Finance to set aside E2 billion for the 2021 salary review exercise.

Prior to the release of the shadow budget, PSAs said they believe that a clearly crafted salary review report was expected to double up the salaries of the least paid civil servants by pegging the entry level salary at E6 000.  Currently, the least paid civil servant get about E3 000 per month.

It is worth noting that the Finance Minister in the neighbouring South Africa, Tito Mboweni, who delivered his budget speech on Wednesday, did not mention anything about civil servants’ salaries. However, public service workers in South Africa do not negotiate for salaries every year. Instead, they sometimes sign agreements which would cater for three years. 

All eyes will be on the minister of Finance when he delivers his third budget speech today. In his second budget speech, the minister announced that government had set aside E277 million to cater for civil servants’ CoLA of three per cent. Eventually, they were awarded three per cent, plus a once-off payment of one per cent of their annual salaries.

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