CIVIL SERVANTS TO KNOW FATE ON COLA TODAY

MBABANE – The fate of civil servants regarding the much publicised cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) will be determined today.

This is because Minister of Public Service Christian Ntshangase revealed that his ministry will meet with the Government Negotiation Team (GNT) to decide today, on whether or not the civil servants’ CoLA will  be backdated.

Ntshangase was responding to a question on how civil servants were going to be compensated for the past three years, as they had not received their CoLA. The minister said he could not get ahead of himself and state if government employees would receive back pay or not as he would only give the definite answer today. 

This follows Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg’s announcement on the provision of E227 million for the CoLA on his second National Budget Speech which he presented last Friday in Parliament.

Mandate

“I think the answer is simple, I am yet to give the GNT a mandate from Cabinet which means tomorrow (today) it will pronounce itself as to what sort of percentage do we give the GNT to table during negotiations,” Ntshangase said. 
The minister further stated that government would also determine their parameters with regard to the date (back pay) for instance, last year or whichever suitable date.

On the other hand, teachers were not at all moved or happy with the budgeted CoLA.
To this, Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) expressed that this was a crystal clear insult to civil servants.
The teachers’ organisation, in a statement, claimed that this was particularly so because civil servants’ salaries were last adjusted in 2016.
“This money (E227 million) is for the whole financial year and not just one month. This effectively means that on average, Rijkenberg has planned to adjust salaries of the average teacher by E250.”

 With the already sky high prices of goods and services, SNAT claimed such an amount was not sufficient.
The Secretary General of SNAT, Sikelela Dlamini, said in April 2020, electricity tariffs would be increased by 3.22 per cent, adding to the already high inflation which, for civil servants, stood at 19.9 per cent for the three years.

“This budgeted figure also means that government is not at all considering backdating any percentage to be agreed upon at the Joint Negotiations Forum (JNF).”
He said Rijkenberg had not made mention of the allowances and appeals which public sector workers were expecting government to concretely respond to.

Allowance

For instance, he said the commuting allowance for civil servants shall remain at 17 cents per kilometre, even in 2020/2021. Also, Dlamini claimed that landlords had hiked house rentals to commercial levels such that their members found it difficult to pay rent.

“Depression levels are bound to increase in that case, which definitely affects productivity in the classroom. We (as SNAT) shall, however, fight tooth and nail to ensure that a meaningful CoLA percentage is agreed upon at the JNF.”

Civil servants, following a three-year span of not receiving a salary increment, were informed last year that government could afford a minimum of three per cent at the beginning of the 2020/21 financial year – April 1, 2020.

Escalate

The introduction of the E277 million is expected to escalate the wage bill to E8.717 billion. To this amount, government also set aside E113 million for notching.
A notch is a scale or level of increment in rank in the civil service pay structure.

With the addition of the money set aside for notching, the wage bill shall be increased to E8.83 billion. Government was at the beginning of the month advised by the International Monetary Fund’s (IMFs) Executive Directors, through Article IV consultation concluded on January 30, 2020, against ballooning the wage bill.

The document said: “Specifically, they (directors) encouraged the authorities to contain public wage spending and administrative expenses, rationalise transfers to State owned entities, prioritise capital projects, and broaden the tax base.”
Given this development, in essence, it means government has now in 11 years failed to do one thing; and one thing only – to minimise the wage bill.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: