DEADLOCK IN COLA TALKS

MANZINI - There is no end in sight in the impasse between government and civil servants.

The ongoing impasse between the two entities has seen a new twist as they could not agree on the cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) negotiations yesterday.
The disagreement came to the fore when the duo had the Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CMAC) as an intermediary in the negotiations where the latter was seeking 6.5 per cent while the former extended a zero per cent offer.

The civil servants were represented by the four public sector associations (PSAs) namely: the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP), National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) and the Swaziland Nurses Association (SNA) also known as the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU). On the other hand, government was represented by the government negotiation team (GNT). 

The negotiations that were held yesterday were means to settle on the CoLA for the 2018/19 financial year.
The matter first went to CMAC last Monday but the GNT asked to recharge its mandate from government.
However, according to sources close to the matter, when they met yesterday, its recharged mandate was that government had no money to adjust civil servants ‘salaries for the year in question.

“This means that the employer’s offer stands at zero per cent,” the sources said.
They said as they continued with the talks, the GNT asked the trade unions’ leaders to discuss what could be done to mitigate the situation because government could not afford to adjust their salaries if the economy would improve in 2020/21.

“In fact, the GNT suggested that we (civil servants) should at least knock off from work 30 minutes before time so that we can use that time to find other means of supplementing their salaries,” said the sources. The insiders said the PSAs’ leaders told the commissioner that they had previously presented projections of the current situation to the employer by highlighting that since it failed to adjust their salaries since  the 2017/18 financial year, it meant that their weekly pay was equal to three days.

Suggested

“We then suggested that we should work three days per week,” they said.
Furthermore, the insiders said they, as trade unions’ leaders, wondered how the GNT came to think of the suggestion that they should knock off from work 30 minutes before time.

“In fact, the unions’ leaders wondered what their members could do in 30minutes per day,” the insiders said.
Again, the sources said the PSAs’ leaders said even if they agreed to knock off from work 30 minutes before time, where would they take the money to invest in order to generate more income.

“They said the GNT should offer them the 6.55 per cent or agree to let them work three days per week,” the insiders said.
They said as the parties failed to reach common ground, CMAC met them separately, but even those engagements failed to yield positive results.

Agreed

“As a result, the two parties agreed before the commissioner that they disagreed on the matter,” the sources said.
On that note, the insiders said CMAC announced that after seven days, it would issue a certificate of unresolved dispute. SNAT Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini confirmed the latest developments.  

On the same note, the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service, Sipho Tsabedze, also confirmed the matter.
It is worth mentioning that when the court interdicted the civil servants’ strike action which lasted for eight days (from September 23 to October 2, 2019), they agreed to push for a certificate of unresolved dispute for the 2018/19 salary talks so that they could ballot for another industrial action.



 

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