GOVT REJECTS PROPOSAL, PSAS NOW WANT E227M SHARED EQUALLY

MANZINI – The cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) negotiations took another twist yesterday as public sector associations (PSAs) now want to share equally the E227 million allocation.

The changed proposal by the PSAs follows that last week, the representatives of civil servants at the Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF), tabled a proposal which sought that the least paid public service worker should get a higher percentage, while the highest paid employee should get the minimal increment. In a statement released by the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) to its membership, it was communicated that government had rejected this proposal. SNAT Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini informed teachers that the government negotiating team (GNT) came with a mandate from its principals that rejected the staggered percentage proposal that was suggested by the PSAs, as reported last week.

Scenario

He said the GNT tabled two scenarios, instead. The first scenario, according to Dlamini, was two per cent across the board plus a once-off award that was 15 per cent of every employee’s salary, while the second scenario was two per cent across the board plus a once-off amount of E1 722 distributed across the board. “The PSAs rejected both scenarios since their adoption would worsen the already deplorable economic position of the workers. Any suggestion of a once-off amount comes with negative implications to the workers. Lessons from the experience of the 2013 agreement were relied upon in substantiating the stance by the PSAs,” he said.

Dlamini said since the PSAs correctly noted that government was pushing towards a settlement that would make the lowly paid workers worse off and yet the costs of basic goods and services such as electricity, bread and fuel were the same for all workers, regardless of the position or post that the worker occupied, they (PSAs) had tabled another strategy to distribute the available budget of E227 million. “The PSAs suggested that the available budget (E227 million) be shared equally among all civil servants, regardless of post or position. This should not be a once-off payment but it must be continuous,” Dlamini said.

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