Africa-Press – Eswatini. Government and civil servants have agreed on four per cent cost-of-living-adjustment (CoLA), which has been backdated to April.
Civil servants and the Government Negotiations Team (GNT) met at the Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF) yesterday, where government was expected to return with a favourable response to the 8.7 per cent demanded by unions.
This was after government tabled a three per cent CoLA a number of times, which was rejected by the Public Sector Unions (PSUs).
PSUs include the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU), Swaziland Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP) as well as National Public Services and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU).
The government negotiating team is said to have informed civil servants that their principals had increased the offer by one per cent, much to the dismay of the unions.
After much deliberation, the civil servants were left with no choice but to sign the offer.
SNAT acting Secretary General, Busizwe Hlatjwako, said they were unhappy with what transpired during the negotiations, as they had expected a much better offer from government.
Hlatjwako said they tried to push for a once off one per cent but that failed.
“We were pushed to a corner due to a number of reasons,” he said.
According to Hlatjwako, they had a challenge in that the principals for the GNT were Cabinet ministers and they were fully aware that the ministers would be out of office on September 25.
This, he said meant that if they did not sign the offer, the negotiations would have collapsed and they would have to wait for the next government to be in place, which was something that would happen next year in February.
He said even then, there was no certainty on what the incoming government would offer.
Hlatjwako said civil servants were pushing so that at least they got something out of the negotiations instead of the negotiations collapsing with them not getting anything.
Adding, he said it must be noted that the items, which were on the negotiation table included allowances from the 2016 salary review and CoLA.
“We were hoping to at least do away with the cost-of-living-adjustment so that we can have the issue of allowances as a stand-alone that was going to be negotiated separately,” Hlatjwako stated.
The acting secretary general said it was clear from the start that government was negotiating in bad faith and that as civil servants they were not playing on a level ground.
He said they did all they could to ensure that when the negotiations resume next time, the playing field would have been levelled.
Civil servants met the news of the signing with mixed feelings, as some felt the four per cent would amount to nothing and argued that the union leaders should have not signed.
Others, however, said it was better than returning from the table empty- handed, while some comforted themselves by stating that at least the offer was backdated.
During the last negotiations, civil servants had expressed their views on the issue, saying it would have been better if government had offered them at least five per cent just like it did with pensioners.
SNAT Secretary General, Lot Vilakati, during the last negotiation where government refused to budge from the three per cent offer, stated that they had reiterated their previous position that even if they could get a 10 per cent CoLA offer, it would be insufficient but because they were negotiating in good faith, they tabled the 8.7 per cent.
On the issue of allowances, government again maintained that it did not have a budget for this agenda item.
Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, is on record saying the three per cent he announced during the budget speech was a place holder until negotiations were finalised.
A place holder refers to a temporary agreement or proposal made in order to keep the conversation moving forward, while more details or information are gathered.
It is often a way to establish a baseline for further negotiations and is not a final agreement or commitment.
The public sector unions also insisted that they do not accept that there was no budget for allowances.
The civil servants categorically stated that they were corned into signing because of the challenges they highlighted, among which was that Cabinet would be leaving office next month.
Ministry of Public Service Principal Secretary, Sipho Tsabedze, when contacted about the JNF progress, stated that he does not comment on issues that were still on the table.
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