Times Of Swaziland: CIVIL SERVANTS’ URGENT COLA MEET CIVIL SERVANTS’ URGENT COLA MEET ================================================================================ BY SIBUSISO ZWANE on 20/02/2020 01:13:00 MANZINI - Civil servants who are itching to hear about developments that took place at the round table regarding issues of CoLA and allowances have been invited to an urgent joint mass meeting slated for next Friday. This is contained in a statement, which was issued by the public sector associations (PSAs) national office bearers yesterday afternoon. This was after the PSAs leaders had met with the government negotiation team (GNT) at the round table. In the statement, which was titled; ‘Update on the Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF)’, the PSA leaders informed the public sector workers in the country that they met with the GNT yesterday. They said the GNT was supposed to table its position paper on allowances. “Indeed, the GNT tabled its position paper on allowances,” they said. Meeting However, they said finer details of the GNT’s position paper would be delivered during the PSAs’ joint mass meeting which would be held at the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Centre on Friday, February 28, 2020 at 10am. The allowances they are negotiating about include travelling, housing, plain clothes and lunch claims, among others. On another note, the PSAs’ national office bearers said the much-publicised three per cent cost of living adjustment (CoLA) offer was a fallacy. “There was never any JNF meeting that was ever held in which the CoLA for the 2019/2020 financial year was discussed,” they said. They added that the CoLA item for 2019/20 financial year was yet to be discussed at the round table. Again, they said negotiations for the 2020/21 financial year had not yet commenced since that financial year would begin on April 1, 2020. “Anyone who talks about any CoLA award that is yet to be discussed (next financial year), is actually putting the cart before the horse,” the PSA leaders said. In that regard, they said they found it necessary to clearly explain all these issues to all the workers, as a matter of urgency. It was on that note that they invited all public sector workers to the joint mass meeting.