PSAS’ MOVE TO UNIONISE POLICE

NHLANGANO – Public sector associations (PSAs) have started a push to unionise the police service.

This became evident yesterday when the government employees paid a visit to the Shiselweni Regional Police Headquarters to deliver a petition, whose main subject was to call upon senior police officers to shy away from protecting subordinates who go out of their way to break the law. Encouraging police officers to consider forming their own union was Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini, who said they would be very supportive of such a move.

Addressing police officers who were led by Shiselweni Regional Commissioner Senior Assistant Commissioner Wendy Hleta, Dlamini told the men in blue that unions were for everyone and not just teachers and a few selected civil servants. He said unions could be good even for members of the country’s security forces, who he said were not immune from human rights violations.

“I am talking from experience. We’ve seen police officers being abused simply because they do not have a proper bargaining tool. A recent example was how they were forced into supervising exams under the pretext that they would be paid for engaging in extra duties. I am very disappointed to say that to date, those officers are yet to be paid,” he noted. Turning to the Regional Commissioner, Hleta, the union leader challenged her to persuade superiors in the service to change their minds about the need for a union. “There is quite a lot that police officers can accomplish if they unionise. I will not go very far to help in illustrating my point; right next door in South Africa, we have one of the wealthiest unions in POPCRU, the union for police officers there, which is helping a lot of its members to improve their lives. “Unions the world over have done a very good job in addressing income and wealth inequality, which has done nothing but continued to sow discord,” he argued.

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