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Govt still planning civil service pay cuts - PM

25/05/2012 00:00:00 SENZO DLAMINI

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MBABANE – Government has not abandoned the plans to effect the now contentious pay cuts on salaries of civil servants.

Prime Minister, Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini, confirmed this in an interview on Wednesday. Dlamini said: "The negotiations with civil servants are ongoing. Government’s intention is to reduce the wage bill by having civil servants agree to a similar pay cuts."

The country’s legal system, according to the premier, requires that any terms and conditions of civil servants be negotiated.

He said the delay in effecting the pay cuts on the salaries of civil servants was not a weakness on the part of government’s decision making process, but was according to the laws, adding that the very same laws were passed by Parliament.

Marwick Khumalo, the Lobamba Lomdzala Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Finance Committee, last week blamed government, accusing it of being weak in decision making.

Khumalo blamed the delay in the implementation of the pay cuts on civil servants’ salaries to what he termed as a weak government.

Civil servants want salary increase from government

MBABANE – Civil servants will this year demand a salary increase from government.

Vincent Dlamini, NAPSAWU Secretary General, yesterday said they want nothing to do with the pay cuts, but a hike on their remuneration.

Dlamini said the last time they received an increase was in 2010. He said government hiked salaries by 4.5 per cent across the board.

"We’re still to calculate the percentage we’ll demand from government," he stated. "With the introduction of the VAT (Value Added Tax), as civil servants, we definitely deserve an increase." Dlamini said commodities in the shops around the country were now too expensive, yet the salaries had remained stagnant for a period of two years.

Comments

The civil service will never retain valuable skills, for many reasons but mainly because of the low-remuneration scales. What must be clear to all is that the civil service wage bill is like this because of the massive dead-wood the service retains, not of valuable skills persons. Currently, there is a massive exodus of the educated valuable asset (skilled labor) from the service because of the negligent remuneration scales.
May 25, 2012, 8:04 AM, Civil Servant