Africa-Press – Eswatini. Unionised civil servants are likely to be a bit disappointed come month-end as they may receive their normal salaries without the much-anticipated three per cent Cost of Living Adjustment (CoLA) that they were expecting eagerly.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service Sipho Tsabedze stated that technical issues might result to the CoLA award being part of November salaries and not this month.
This comes after there were circulating rumours that government was likely not to include the CoLA award in this month’s salaries. Last week Wednesday government representatives together with the four Public Sector Unions (PSUs) signed the three per cent CoLA award to be backdated to April this year being the collective bargaining and the one per cent once off payment against their annual salaries.
The PSUs include the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU), National Public Services and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) and Swaziland National Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP).
The PS Tsabedze stated that due to the fact that the three per cent was not initiated for all civil servants due to the different collective bargaining government signed with PSUs and EPA, the payroll process this month would be lengthy.
He stated that they went back to the manual method in order to avoid instances where un-unionised civil servants and those under EPA got a bumper pay too.
“It is normally easier when the increment is initiated across all civil servants,” he said.
He said a similar delay was encountered when they were implementing the CoLA award for EPA members and un-unionised civil servants, meaning it will not be anything different or out of the ordinary.
Tsabedze noted that the treasury department under the ministry of finance had not communicated anything in that regard, but they would not be surprised if they communicated otherwise.
This came after September 21, 2022 when the parties to the Joint Negotiations Forum (JNF) where the parties presented their position papers where the Government Negotiations Team (GNT) offered the three per cent increase on basic salaries across the board with effect from April 1, 2022.
PSUs, on the other hand, presented a CoLA demand of 7.77 per cent which could not be accepted by the government team.
After negotiations between the parties, the PSUs agreed to lower their demand to five per cent, thus at a meeting held on October 5, 2022, the parties agreed to implement the CoLA of three per cent and a one per cent once off payment of the annual basic salaries across the board.
The collective bargaining is similar to the one government signed with the Eswatini Principals Association (EPA).
For More News And Analysis About Eswatini Follow Africa-Press
