SRA: 10AM DEADLINE FOR STRIKING WORKERS TO COME BACK TO WORK

MBABANE – The Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) has extended the olive branch to its employees who want to return to work.

The SRA management yesterday decided to temporarily lift the lockout it enforced on its employees on December 15. The lockout was in relation to employees who have been on strike since December 12. The temporary lifting will only be for 24 hours, effective yesterday and will elapse today at 10am.

This lockout meant employees who were on strike were not allowed to enter any of the organisation’s offices until their union, the Swaziland Revenue Authority Workers Union (SRAWU), calls off the industrial action.

News of the lifting was communicated to managers and directors through an internal memorandum which was sent to them yesterday. According to the memo, which this publication has in possession, which was signed by the SRA Commissioner General Dumisani Masilela, the organisation’s management was flooded with requests from employees who were on strike. In the memo, Masilela said the employees declared their intention to abandon the strike and return to work.

“In order to enable these staff members to return to work, management has made a decision to suspend the lockout,” reads the memo.
It further states, “The temporary lifting of the lockout shall be effective from 10am on Wednesday, December 27, 2017 until 10am on Thursday, December 28, 2017.”

Masilela ordered line managers to assist employees who will show interest in returning to work. The memo stipulates that employees who will show interest will have to fill in a Voluntary Resumption of Work Form which was emailed to the managers. For the employee to be eligible to return to work, he or she will submit the completed and signed form to their line manager for authorisation purposes. The forms will thereafter be taken to the organisation’s Human Resources Division.

It seems there will be no vetting process for employees who will show interest in returning to work. This was confirmed by SRA Director  Communications Vusi Dlamini during an interview yesterday. Dlamini said employees who wanted to resume their duties would have to follow laid down processes and vetting was not part of that. He said they only had to go to their workstations and formally declare to their line managers that they wanted to return to work.

“They are coming back on their own volition; they chose to come back and they are still our employees and have not been fired by SRA,” said Dlamini. When asked whether SRA was lifting the lockout because the organisation was not coping without its employees, Dlamini said it was solely because many employees had engaged their line managers informally and requested to return to work. He clarified that the organisation deliberately lifted the lockout for a short time to allow those who were serious about recommencing with their duties to do so.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: