Home | News | Truck drivers get 34 per cent salary increase

Truck drivers get 34 per cent salary increase

15/08/2013 05:19:00 BY WELCOME DLAMINI

Font size:

MBABANE – Truck drivers have been awarded a 34 per cent salary increase in the new wage structure for the road transport industry.

The pay rise is part of the wage council negotiations for the road transport industry for 2013 under the courier and goods services sector.
A wage council is a body tasked with the responsibility of making recommendations to the minister responsible as to the minimum terms and conditions of service including wage rates to be applied to employees employed in an industrial undertaking or trade or service by different employers who offer dissimilar conditions of employment.

It is made up of a chairperson, two independent members and an equal number of employers and workers’ representatives.
The highest paid truck drivers will be those driving vehicles weighing 20 000 kilogrammes and above who are to earn E603.25 a week.
These drivers are classified under Grade VI together with senior clerks.

Drivers of vehicles weighing 12 001 to 20 000kg will be paid E597.80 weekly– the same as clerks and workshop storemen – who are all classified under Grade V.
Drivers of mobile cranes and of vehicles weighing between 7001 and 12 000kg will be entitled to a pay of E575.80 a week.

weighing

Classified under Grade III are assistant artisans or assistant mechanics and drivers of vehicles weighing 2001 to 7000kg who will be paid E555.90 a week.Drivers of vehicles weighing up to 2000kg, tyre men and fuel issuers who are all classified under Grade II are to be paid E519.40 weekly.
Under Grade I there are lorrymates, loaders, messengers and general workers who are to be remunerated at a scale of E364.50 a week.
Lorrymates are employees who assist in the execution of drivers’ duties while loaders are employees who assist in the loading or off-loading of vehicles.

Messengers are employees engaged to convey messages and parcels and carry out elementary office jobs.
Driver instructors, artisans, mechanics, auto electricians and welders, who are all under Grade VII are the highest paid of all employees in the courier and goods services sector as they will earn E1 053.40 in a week.

The International Transport Federation, on its website, has already hailed the increase saying it was ‘all the more welcome in light of Swaziland’s international reputation for trade union rights violations and its position in the ITUC’s 2013 countries at risk report’.

ITF Africa regional secretary Joseph Katende said: “This wage increase for workers in Swaziland is tremendous, and congratulations must go to STAWU for negotiating such a good deal for their members. The next step is to ensure that all employers fully comply with this kind of legislation, and a key part of this will be the introduction of training and licensing centres for heavy vehicles. We look to Swaziland’s labour commissioner to take a lead on this, and make a real difference for Swaziland road transport workers.”

... kombi owners won’t afford 24.5 per cent increment

MBABANE – Local kombi owners say they cannot afford the 24.5 per cent salary increase awarded to public transport drivers and conductors.
As a result, the executive committee of the Local Kombi Association will today meet to discuss the new wage scale provided for in the government gazette titled ‘The Regulation of Wages (Road Transportation) Industry Order of 2013.

“We will then call all our members to a meeting where the new salaries will be discussed in detail,” Secretary General Sabelo Dlamini said.
“We won’t be able to pay this amount. There has been no bus fare increase in eight years and we informed Minister of Labour and Social Security Lutfo Dlamini about this when they began discussing the salary raise for our employees. The minister promised to take the matter up with his colleague Ntuthuko Dlamini (Minister of Public Works and Transport) and that is what we were still waiting feedback on when we learnt that the salary increase has been passed,” Dlamini said

According to the secretary general, they had proposed that the fare for boarding kombis known as ‘up and down’ be increased from E4 per eight kilometres to E6 but that suggestion was never accepted to date.
Dlamini said the latest development was bound to cause acrimony between the transport owners and the employees “because we cannot afford to pay them.”

He cited issues like the Value Added Tax (VAT) and the high cost of vehicle spare parts as other factors that have to be considered since they were hitting hard on the transport owners’ pockets. Owners of kombis that carry a maximum of 16 passengers now have to pay their drivers a minimum wage of E479 a week. For kombis that carry between 17 and 36 passengers, they have to pay their drivers a minimum of E512.65. The kombi owners are also expected to pay a minimum wage of E336.15 a week to their conductors.
The drivers and conductors are also entitled to overtime payment.

The first thirty minutes of overtime worked on any day shall qualify for payment at the normal wage rate of the employee.
Once the employee works overtime of more than 30 minutes on any normal day, they shall be paid at a rate of one and a half times their normal wage rate. If they work on their off-day or during public holidays, the employees shall be paid double their normal daily wages.

Drivers required to work a night shift shall be paid an allowance at one and a half times his normal wage rate. A night shift means a shift during which five and a half or more ordinary hours of work, overtime excluded, fall within the period reckoned from 6pm to 6am the following day.