NO-WORK, NO-PAY STANCE: BRING IT ON - SNAT

MBABANE – Bring it on!

This was the reaction of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General, Lot Vilakati, following the stance by government that it will apply the no-work, no-pay rule on teachers who will not attend school today.

SNAT has invited its members to a mass meeting slated for today at the association’s centre at 10am. Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Sipho Tsabedze, said the no-work, no-pay rule would be effected on teachers who would absent themselves from work today. Tsabedze said if the Ministry of Education and Training had not given permission to SNAT members to attend, then it meant that educators who would not be at work would not be paid.

Meeting

SNAT has called an urgent general council (GC) meeting, which is the highest decision-making body of the organisation, to deliberate on how it would defend their President, Mbongwa Dlamini, who was fired by government last month. The mass meeting was announced through the SNAT Platform on social media.

Subsequent to the mass meeting, SNAT conducted regional consultative meetings, whereby they were deliberating on the same issue involving the dismissal of the president. Mbongwa was dismissed after he was found guilty on all 109 charges of absenteeism preferred against him. The charges were preferred against him by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC).

Acting Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Education and Training, Naniki Mnisi, said today (Friday, September 15, 2023) was a school calendar day. Mnisi said all teachers were expected to be at work. She stated that government had an agreement with the union and in their view before calling a mass meeting, it would be acceptable if they had discussed their concerns first with the ministry.

“It is improper to put the cart before the horse,” the acting PS said. Mnisi said teachers, as civil servants, were governed by the government statutes, including the Employment Act, Civil Service Act and Industrial Relations Act. According to SNAT SG Vilakati, the Recognition Agreement between SNAT and the ministry signed in 1992, stated that they were to report to the immediate supervisor.

Vilakati said the immediate supervisor had no power to refuse the employee to attend to union business, including meetings. In this instance, he said they had reported to the supervisors about the mass meeting. “The meeting is on today,” he said.

He said if government insisted that teachers should be at school, despite reporting to supervisors, then they should cancel the Recognition Agreement first or rather furnish them with the new agreement for the union to call meetings. Vilakati said currently, the only agreement was the one they signed in 1992, which stated everything regarding their operations. Beyond that, Vilakati stated that the Employment Act mentioned that the employees would be in trouble if they would be not at work for more than 55 hours without reporting. 

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