Africa-Press – Eswatini. Domestic workers will now earn not less than E1 400 per month on average.
This follows that the Ministry of Labour and Social Security has issued a gazette in line with the 2023 Wages Council. The salaries for domestic workers, according to Domestic Workers Union Spokesperson Phumelele Zulu, during the wages council, they agreed that all domestic workers should be remunerated nothing less than E1 400. According to the Wages Council gazette, a domestic worker is described as any person who is employed in a private household, as a cook, house attendant, waiter, children’s nurse, gardener, herdsman or watchman. Zulu said during the negotiations, it was submitted that a flat percentage would not benefit those who were earning less than E1 200. She said some of their members were found to be earning around E1 000.
Motivating
This, she said, resulted in them motivating that they should all earn E1 400 and in addition to this, it was agreed that they should be offered seven per cent more. This translates to a salary of about E1 498 per month. For those who were earning E1 200, this was a 26.7 per cent increment, as they shall now earn about E1 498. Those who were paid E1 400, it shall be a seven per cent increment. Leading to the negotiations, domestic workers were entitled to a minimum wage; for cooks it was E58 a day or E9.20 an hour. Watchmen were to be paid as provided under the Regulation of Wages (Security Services Industry) Order.
On the other hand, the union has been advocating for a law instructing their employers to issue them with payslips at the end of each calendar month.
In recent months, the union has insisted that the issuance of payslips by employers was a requirement by law. In advancing this demand, Zulu had in recent months said the country had not yet ratified the ILO Convention on Domestic Workers on Decent Work; as a result Eswatini domestic workers were not covered under the workmen’s compensation laws and were not contributing to any national social security scheme.
Meanwhile, this victory by domestic workers is subsequent to another by the Swaziland Union in Learning and Allied Institutions (SULAI), which Zulu is president of. This is because all support staff shall now earn not less than E1 800 per month. Zulu said this was the organisations position during the wages council and it was successful. She said in addition to the E1 800 basic salary, her organisation’s members who were earning beneath this amount had an increment of three per cent as well. This translates to an additional E54.
Zulu said in their survey leading to the wages council, they had uncovered that some of their members were earning as little as E1 200, while others were paid E1 400. She said this was a disparity which needed to be addressed as some of their members were earning E1 800.
This translates to 53 per cent for those who were earning E1 200, while it is 31.6 per cent for those who were earning E1 400 per month.
Watchmen
Zulu said for the workers who were already earning E1 800, they negotiated that they should be awarded five per cent, which equates to E90. It is worth noting that this increment is subsequent to an increment wherein watchmen guarding schools, had their minimum wage reviewed by 30 cents per hour last year. This was when the sector was awarded an increment of 6.5 per cent on their minimum wage, while those earning above it were granted an increment of three per cent. According to Zulu, they believe that this was the best way to align their members salaries, other than to seek an across the board percentage, which would have proved to have a minimal effect on the salaries of low earning support staff. She said they were now hoping that upon the release of a gazette, which would effect this new pay rate, schools would have a sufficient budget to remunerate them.
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