MPS CALL FOR TEAM TO MEDIATE BETWEEN GOVT, PSAS

LOBAMBA – Members of Parliament (MPs) seem to be in agreement on the desire to have a committee within the august House that would mediate and negotiate with the public sector associations (PSAs) in their ongoing spat with government.

Part of the negotiations are meant to convince the PSAs to consider stopping the intended strike action. This issue was raised by Ndzingeni Member of Parliament Lutfo Dlamini who advised that there should be a committee of MPs which will negotiate with PSAs in the remaining seven days before the proposed strike. The PSAs are currently at loggerheads with government over their cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA), which they have been demanding for a couple of years now. This impasse has culminated in a public spat between government, in particular the Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, and the PSAs.

Statement

Yesterday, the PM issued a ministerial statement on the intended PSAs’ strike action in Parliament where he said government had noted with concern the continuous negative publicity made by PSAs as a result of government’s inability to award CoLA to the civil servants for the past two years. He said government had also received notices from the PSAs informing it of their members’ intention to embark on a strike action from September 23, 2019 over the demands for CoLA. The PM further noted that the print media had reported that the organisers of the PSAs strike action were now inviting others who were not part of the dispute between government and the PSAs, including non citizens of the country to join the strike action and engage in unlawful activities such as border blockades and further invited students to participate in the strike in an effort to force government to accede to their demand for CoLA.

“In light of these reports, government has found it necessary and important to provide Parliament with the right information regarding the proposed strike action. It is of paramount importance for me to inform the august House that government is in a challenging financial situation, hence its inability to award civil servants CoLA for the past two years. It is therefore worrying for civil servants to engage in a strike action when the desired outcome of such will not be achieved but will instead compound the situation and further worsen the already delicate economic situation,” he said.

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