UNESWA WORKERS’ STRIKE TAKES OFF, BUT …

MANZINI - Part of operations continued at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) Kwaluseni Campus yesterday despite that some employees engaged in a non-stop (waya-waya) strike over award performance (notching).

While some workers were on strike, junior staff were found working in the administration block. The legal strike comes after a deadlock was reached on the dispute between UNESWA and its employees. In February this year, the Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration Commission issued a certificate of unresolved dispute on the salary adjustment issue.

Refused

UNESWA management had offered its employees a three per cent cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA), but refused to allow staff to notch, yet all along, each CoLA award came with notching. There has been no notching since 2018 due to that the university has declared that there was a shortage of funds. The strike began at 8am where employees from the Kwaluseni, Luyengo and Mbabane campuses downed tools and took to the university’s entrance, to demonstrate while singing and dancing to political songs. Clad in their red T-shirts, the members of the Association of Lecturers, Academic and Administrative Personnel (ALAAP) would be often seen blocking vehicles that wished to enter the university’s premises.

Attend

However, students were seen entering the gate. The workers were heard asking them what they were going to do in the campus as no one would attend to them. The students occasionally went in and out of the university as others stayed on campus. Those who were arriving at the university campus residence had to offload their belongings from their parents or relatives’ cars at the gate and carry them inside the university residence. ALAAP General Secretary Dr Mduduzi Shongwe said their main concern was notching. He said in the past two years, the workers had been engaging the university on the issue but eventually reached a consensus that both parties did not reach a compromise and a certificate of unresolved dispute was issued.
“Our employer has told us that there is no money for notching and does not seem to show keen interest in negotiating,” Dr Shongwe said. When a question was posed on whether the workers took into cognition the negative impact that the strike would cause on academic performance, the general secretary said such was inevitable.

“It is saddening for employees to work with due diligence but having nothing to show for their good work. We are saddened that students will be inevitably affected, because as we engage on the strike, classes are on standstill since government is refusing to negotiate. But if our needs are not met, there is nothing we can offer students,” said the general secretary. He reiterated that their welfare should be prioritised, adding that management would make a plan while they were on. Shongwe said even online classes which were conducted by them had been stopped, while the strike continued. The general secretary said the strike could take even three months if it had to, until their demands were met. UNESWA Registrar Dr Salebona Simelane said most operations, apart from teaching, were not adversely affected. “Unfortunately, I can only give you an assessment on teaching activities tomorrow afternoon,” he said.

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