NO GOVERNMENT CIRCULAR YET FOR 3-PER CENT COLA

MANZINI – Not this time around!

Civil servants who were looking forward to enjoy the three per cent cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) and once-off payment of one per cent of their annual basic salary, will not be getting any this month. On July 4, 2022, the Minister of Public Service, Mabulala Maseko, pronounced that government had taken a decision to award the three per cent CoLA to managers and non-unionisable civil servants with effect from this month.
Maseko said the CoLA would be backdated to April 1, 2022 which is the beginning of government’s financial year. The adjustment which was announced by the minister in the salary of civil servants was last implemented in August 2020 wherein a similar offer was awarded after three years. This increment, he said, was subsequent to an agreement reached by government with the Eswatini Principals Association (EPA). The pair had engaged in novel negotiations parallel to those with public sector unions (PSUs) of Eswatini, who have from time immemorial, been negotiating for civil servants. However, the implementation process for this review which was agreed upon by the pair shall not be effected this month as the Ministry of Finance has not received an instrument for its implementation.

Communications Officer in the Ministry of Finance Setsabile Dlamini said this after she was sought comment to establish whether the Finance Ministry, through the Treasury Department, had the payroll with the adjusted percentage as announced by the Ministry of Public Service. Dlamini was asked if this adjustment was not implemented, what could have caused the delay and when would it be effected as it was to start this month. She said: “(In paying salaries) we use a circular from the Ministry of Public Service to effect any adjustments; so as of now, we don’t have any altering the salaries.” It is worth noting that the deadline for running salaries at the Treasury Department is usually five working days before the remuneration of civil servants. For this month, this publication gathered that it was July 12, 2022.

Responded

An effort to get a comment from the Ministry of Public Service fell through as the minister and the Principal Secretary (PS), Sipho Tsabedze, had not responded by the time this article was compiled. They were asked whether the three per cent CoLA and once-off one per cent of annual salary across board for managers and non-unionisable civil servants would be effected this month and if not, what had caused the delay. Also, they had been sought to assist with information on when it would be implemented.The developments are also at the backdrop of parliamentarians having strongly criticised the three per cent CoLA agreement between EPA and the Government Negotiation Team (GNT), indicating that it should be set aside. While debating the Ministry of Public Service’s first quarter performance report, Members of Parliament (MPs) criticised the way the negotiation process had gone between the GNT and stakeholders, stating that what had happened had sown seeds of division and therefore, there was need for a revisit. The legislators said it would be advisable for the ministry to consider negotiating with stakeholders who would represent the whole civil service, rather than reaching an agreement with an association whose membership they questioned.

Meanwhile, government recently said a proposal from the GNT to alternate agenda items presented by it until the list was exhausted, was rejected by PSUs, who proposed that agenda items that were left pending from the previous financial year 2021/2022, should be first on the agenda. However, this was not acceptable to the GNT, resulting in a deadlock. On April 28, 2022, the GNT and EPA commenced negotiations on the Cola for the 2022/2023 financial year. The GNT offered three per cent of basic salary across the board with effect from April 1, 2022. EPA, on the other hand, countered that offer and demanded six per cent CoLA on the basis that this would cushion the salaries of their members which had been eroded over the years. As negotiations continued, and appreciating the parlous financial situation of government, EPA eventually moved from its initial CoLA demand of six per cent to a final fall-back position of three per cent demand, plus a once-off sweetener of one per cent of annual basic salary across the board.

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