UNIONS WANT ‘DVULADVULA’ AGREEMENT SEALED BY COURT

MBABANE – As the euphoria around the ‘dvuladvula’ bumper pay subsides, public sector unions  have filed an application in the Industrial Court where they want the collective agreement they entered into with government over the salary review, to be, made an order of the court.

The application to make the collective agreement between the parties an order of the court was filed by the unions’ lawyers yesterday.
Applicants in the matter are the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) and the Swaziland Nurses Association (SNA), while the government negotiation team and the attorney general have been cited as respondents.
According to the collective agreement which has been annexed to the application, the Joint Negotiations Forum (JNF) commenced negotiations on the salary review on May 10, 2016.

The negotiations continued in a series of meetings until July 6, 2016, where the parties agreed.
The parties agreed as follows: That the salary review exercise be implemented on a notch-to-notch basis at 93.81 per cent of the recommended salaries across all grades, which shall not exceed E850 million of basic salary and be implemented in 2016/2017; that the effective date will be April 1, 2016; that the existing allowances will be paid at the prevailing rates; that an appeals procedure will be elaborated in the Establishment Circular implementing the Salary Grade Structure; that all issues or mutual interest to parties, including allowances, will be engaged jointly or bilaterally through the Joint Negotiations Forum on November 2016; that the next salary review will be implemented in the year 2021, in line with the prevailing five years  interval agreed by the parties.

The collective agreement dated July 6, 2016 was signed by the representatives of the unions.
In the application to make the collective agreement an order of the court, SNAT Secretary General Muzi Mhlanga stated that the Industrial Court has got jurisdiction in this matter, by virtue of the fact that it arises out of salary negotiations between the Swaziland Government as an employer and the public sector unions representing their members who are employees of the Swaziland Government.
Giving a brief background of the matter, Mhlanga stated that on/or about July 6, 2016 the Swaziland Government duly represented by the government negotiation team entered into a collective of agreement with the public sector unions, which include SNAT, SNA and other unions, being; Swaziland National Association of Civil Servants (SNACS) and the Swaziland National Association of Goverment Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP), regarding the salary review.

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