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‘SET ASIDE E2BN FOR SALARY REVIEW’

25/02/2021 00:06:00 BY SIBUSISO ZWANE

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MANZINI - Set aside E2 billion for civil servants’ salary review!

This was said by the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) to the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, who is expected to deliver his third budget speech tomorrow.

The teachers’ union said this through its statement, which was released by the Secretary General, Sikelela Dlamini, where he highlighted what they expected from the 2021/22 National Budget.

The secretary general said as a trade union that represented about 16 000 educators in the country, they awaited the national budget to be presented to Parliament with bated breath. He said they were aware that the current global challenges posed by the outbreak of COVID-19, coupled with the ground realities of a stunted economic growth, demanded unmatched innovation on the side of government.

Critical

He said their focus as SNAT was the capacitation of critical sectors of the economy in a manner that would not render government, an upholder of the Constitution and the decisions of the courts, ultra vires in the implementation of its due legal mandate.

Dlamini said the 2021/22 financial year would be a year in which there would be a salary review exercise for all employees under the employ of the government.

He said this was because when the collective agreement that effected the recommendations of the 2016/17 salary review exercise was signed in 2016, government committed that the next similar exercise would be done during the upcoming financial year.

“To further strengthen her commitment to this just cause, government agreed that the 2016 collective agreement be made an order of the court so that it can be given a force of law. This was done on July 6, 2016,” the unionist said.

He said since they believed that government was defender number one for human and workers’ rights, it should ensure that the order of the court was not tampered with. Fortunately, he said talks at the joint negotiations forum (JNF) were underway, in preparation for the 2021/22 salary review exercise.

“Since a sum of E850 million was used to implement recommendations of the 2016/17 salary review, albeit partially, for the 2021/22 financial year, we expect that a total of E2 billion be set aside by the minister of finance to cater for this exercise,” the secretary general of the teachers’ union said.

Dlamini said this money would be used to also normalise the many grievances that arose as appeals to the 2016/17 salary review exercise, such as normalising the salaries of school head teachers and deputies in both primary and secondary schools. He said the money would also be used to normalise the salaries for heads of department in schools, housing allowance, commuting allowance, introduction of the medical aid for government employees and hardship allowance for all civil servants who worked in remote areas.

According to the unionist, all these issues were raised as recommendations by the 2016/17 salary review which could not be implemented by government at that time as it cited cash liquidity problems.

Reviewed

The teachers’ union’s secretary general further said in August 2020, government also entered into a collective agreement with public sector associations (PSAs), which was to the effect that during the 2021/22 salary review, all the aforementioned allowances would indeed be reviewed.

He said the wage bill should not be an excuse because they believed it was increased by ‘ghost employees’, something which government had been failing to address since 2013, when former Minister of Finance Majozi Sithole admitted that it was huge.

Consequential to that, in the same year, he said there was a skills audit exercise which sought to identify causes of the massive wage bill, chief among which was the issue of ‘ghost employees’ in the civil service.

Unfortunately, the unionist said the report of that exercise was never published, yet taxpayers’ monies were used to conduct it. Therefore, he said as SNAT, they were tired of that ‘chorus’ by the ministers of finance, including the current one, who also sung it when he delivered the 2020/21 national budget.

He said this time around they expected a clear report in terms of how this issue would be addressed in 2021/22 so that there could be enough resources that could be available to fund other equally important public services.

Moreover, he said they were of the ardent view that the minister, who was a business magnate, would be able to grapple with the ground realities of their socio-economic landscape as people and present a budget that would have a human face on it.

“He does not need to be a Harvard University graduate to know that the rough waters in which the ship he is steering is sailing demands that individual workers and citizens need improved salaries so as to be able to reinvigorate the already ailing economy.”

Function

“The appropriate remuneration of the over 44 000 civil servants, including members of the security forces, shall surely function as a game changer to all the problems that we are facing as a country,” he said.

It is worth noting that the other unions under the PSAs banner concurred with SNAT.

They also highlighted that they had mentioned before that they expected the 2021/22 salary review to double salaries of the least paid civil servants.

Currently, the least paid civil servants are pocketing about E3 000 per month and PSAs said a clearly crafted salary review report was expected to peg entry level salaries at E6 000.