Home | News | PSUS DEMAND 7.27% COLA, GOVT OFFERS 3%

PSUS DEMAND 7.27% COLA, GOVT OFFERS 3%

27/06/2024 18:37:00 Stanley Khumalo

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MBABANE – Civil servants are demanding a 7.27 per cent cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) while government is offering three per cent across the board.

The demand was made yesterday during the Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF), where the Public Sector Unions (PSUs) of Swaziland represent about 21 535 public service workers, based on their four unions’ membership updates, while the employer is represented by the Government Negotiation Team (GNT). The 7.27 per cent demand is for the 2024/25 financial year. The CoLA offer by the GNT was said to be backdated to April 1, 2024.

Un-unionisable

The civil servants represented by the PSUs are a fraction of the 42 686 public service workers, while the difference is characterised as un-unionisable employees. These include senior government officials, politicians and members of the State security forces. In recent years, the Eswatini Principals Association (EPA), an organisation of deputy and head teachers, represented the un-unionisable civil servants in negotiations that have run parallel to those of the PSUs. Meanwhile, yesterday, the GNT and the PSUs presented their position papers, with the latter demanding 7.27 per cent. Their motivation for the demand was the 3.1 per cent growth of the economy in the past year and inflation standing at 4.1 per cent. The PSUs are: National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) and Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP). They submitted that this year, like all previous years, has been difficult for government workers, as they have continued to dig deep into their pockets due to the escalation of prices for basic goods and services.

Adjustments

Public sector workers, according to the unions, have been receiving adjustments that were always far below the true inflation in previous years. As a result, they said the salaries of workers had continued to be eroded due to the low yearly offers for CoLA made by the employer. “The continued increase in tariffs and other basic commodities needed for survival has had a dire impact on the general living conditions of the workers, as they are living below the poverty line,” submitted the unions. They said government was supposed to implement the salary review in 2021, as per the July 6, 2016 order of the court, but that had not happened to date, causing the workers to suffer more. The unions motivated their demand by stating that it had always been their ardent belief as workers, that those employed by the civil service played a pivotal role in the economic invigoration of the country, largely because of the huge numbers of those engaged therein.

For example, they said electricity tariffs had gone up by eight per cent and water as well. This, they said, resulted in nearly 75 per cent of the expenditure for low income earners, being spent for on day-to-day expenses, such as food, transportation, rent, utilities and communication. “These are unfortunately the goods and services in which we have seen major price increases for the past two to three years. With public transport getting a 15 per cent increase in 2022, water nine per cent in the same year and an additional hike of 10.2 per cent for the 2023/2024 financial year and electricity eight per cent recently,” submitted the PSUs. As such, the PSUs claimed that civil servants, as major contributors to the economy, had noted that the country was quickly moving towards a period of stability, since it had successfully passed over the COVID-19 pandemic era, which had socio-economic turbulences on the economy, just like the rest of the world.

Improving

This, they said, had seen the economy of the country improving drastically since 2021, which is a good indicator that the country’s economy is stabilising. The unions presented that the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development had projected in its 2022 financial report a healthy gross domestic product (GDP) of about 4.5 per cent for the year 2023. “Also, the government received a lucrative amount of about E11.75 billion in Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) receipts in the last financial year 2023/24 and it was projected at E13.06 billion for this year 2024/25, which also shows a healthy purse for our employer. “This now tells us the government is in a better position to adequately cushion its workers to further enable them to pump more money into the economy.”

In light of this, they submitted that their demand was that the government, as their employer, recognised that the workers’ salaries were deeply eroded. They expressed hope that the salaries of the civil servants would be adequately adjusted. The unions said, as a social partner, their employer had an obligation to respect workers’ rights and to value the efforts that they were putting in their daily work. “The PSUs are, therefore, making a CoLA minimum demand of 7.27 per cent. This has been derived from adding the 2023/2024 inflation of 4.1 per cent and the GDP, which depicts economic growth of 3.1 per cent,” submitted the PSUs.

Difficulties

They said their employer had been awarding a very low CoLA, which had continued to keep public sector workers in dire economic difficulties, even after being cushioned. The PSUs claimed that the lives of workers had not changed qualitatively. The unions said a CoLA of 7.27 per cent shall be adequate in placing workers at a level in which they could be able to live.
They said such an award would enable workers to put in more money into the economy, thereby reinvigorating it. They said the result would be a positive general economic growth for the whole country.

According to the unions, giving the public sector workers a share of the GDP would go a long way in motivating them in their daily work. They said in full demonstration of a good negotiation spirit, they had chosen to be considerate by not adding the variances for the previous years to the current CoLA demand, although the expectation was that the variances be added.