Africa-Press – Eswatini. Swaziland Union of Financial Institutions and Allied Workers (SUFIAW) has accused the First National Bank (FNB) of intimidating unionised staff members following the decision to proceed with the strike.
The union said it had received reports from its members that they were being intimidated by management, which was wrong and unacceptable.
On Monday, unionised bank employees voted for the strike following an impasse on salary negotiations where the union was demanding 8.5 per cent against management’s offer of 5.85 per cent.
The strike is expected to commence tomorrow.
The bank confirmed the strike action and disclosed that it had put in place measures to ensure that operations continue smoothly.
Following the decision for the strike to proceed, the bank’s management was accused of questioning unionised workers if they would participate in the strike action or not.
members
SUFIAW Secretary General, Jabu Shiba, confirmed having received concerns from their members of alleged intimidation from the bank’s management and said it was wrong for management to ask employees what they voted for or if they would participate in the strike action.
Shiba said the ballot box was to ensure that votes were kept secret and employees were protected from victimisation.
“This is wrong and unacceptable. What the employer must do is to ensure that it takes property such as laptops and keys from employees and let them continue with what they decided on,” she stated.
concerns
She said they had written to the bank’s chief executive officer with the hope that he would address the concerns.
Shiba further stated that they would escalate the issue and lodge a formal complaint to the office of the commissioner of labour and also the International Labour Organisation (ILO). FNB acting Executive Head of Human Capital, Hlengiwe Msibi, said they had not received any reports from employees on incidences of intimidation.
According to Msibi they encouraged staff to report any acts that they may be perceived as intimidation to human capital department and committed that those concerns would be addressed appropriately.
“The bank further encourages the union to send knowledge of specific acts to management,” Msibi stated.
She said the bank continued to encourage staff to exercise their collective bargaining rights and in line with this, they would not condone any acts of intimidation and they gave staff that assurance.
On Monday Msibi disclosed that the bank believed that they were reasonable to the employees with the 5.85 per cent offer.
unresolved
She confirmed that the issue that remained unresolved was related to cost of living salary adjustments (CoLA) for the year, where the union is demanding 8.5 per cent against an improved management offer of 5.85 per cent, before individual performance increases that could take top performers to 7.5 per cent.
Msibi said the last banking sector CoLA ranged from four per cent to six per cent and FNB Eswatini offer was, therefore, within industry range.
She said there were no reasonable grounds to support any proposal that was out of market and risks an unwarranted consequential inflationary impact on the cost of some of the services the bank offers.
Should any matters outside CoLA be raised, Msibi said these would be addressed though well-defined processes that would respect all stakeholder interests.
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