Africa-Press – Eswatini. Public sector unions (PSUs) have called for an increase in allowances following the delay in reviewing salaries for civil servants.
They are demanding an increase of the subsistence, commuting, housing, hardship and plain clothes allowances, which they said had been recommended by a consultant in 2016 when salaries were reviewed.
The Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) stated that the public sector unions tabled at the Joint Negotiations Forum (JNF) that the subsistence allowance should increase from E15.50 to E65, commuting allowance increase from E0.17 per kilometre (km) to E0.62 per kilometre.
On the housing allowance, they demanded that it should be increased from E618 to E800, maximum being E3 000 depending on employees salary’s range.
The also demanded that hardship allowance, which is not yet in place should be implemented, being five per cent of the basic pay.
Implementation
The unions further demanded the implementation of E300 plain clothes allowance for all civil servants.
They explained that only police officers under the criminal investigation department (CID) were paid this allowance.
The unions want all these allowances to be paid on a monthly basis.
SNAT Secretary General, Lot Vilakati, said they expected the allowances to be implemented immediately after they sign a collective agreement with government.
Vilakati said they tabled the demands because employees were suffering yet receiving little salaries.
He explained that the allowances were supposed to be implemented in 2016 after the consultant’s recommendations.
Vilakati said once the allowances were increased, the life of a civil servant would change as they spent a lot of money renting houses but were only offered E600 as a housing allowance.
He further said they wanted to be able to claim allowances starting from zero-km to maximum destination when travelling.
According to Vilakati, some employees were exposed to unconducive working environments and were not given hardship allowances.
He went on to state that they expected government to respond today in order to be able to sign the collective agreement.
The Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) Secretary General, Mayibongwe Masangane, said the allowances cut across all government employees.
Masangane explained that they engaged government on the matter and were promised it would be included in the next salary review.
He said looking at the delay in the implementation of the salary review they saw the need to ensure that the allowances were increased immediately for the benefit of employees.
Civil servants, according to Masangane, need to be compensated as they were losing a lot yet they were not paid enough.
Money
He stated that employees tended to use their own money in financing essentials that should be provided by government through the issuance of allowances.
Masangane made an example of the housing allowance paid to employees when they were not provided government houses.
Currently, the provided allowance was not making sense as rent was expensive thus the need for an increase, he said.
“Some employees are given uniforms yet they are expected to work. Those without uniforms must receive the plain clothes allowance to assist them in buying clothes to be used while executing their work,” Masangane said.
Public Service Principal Secretary, Sipho Tsabedze, confirmed having received the allowances increase demand from the PSUs, saying that they would soon reply to the unions through the laid down channels.
The much anticipated salary review was expected to commence in April after the ministry of public service invited consultants to submit competitive bids for the work.
The review, which was budgeted at E15 million, was expected to last over a 12 month period has still not started after no consultant showed interest.
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