SALARY REVIEW SNAG: NAPSAWU REFUSES TO ATTEND TALKS

MANZINI – The much anticipated civil servants’ salary review talks between government and PSAs have been grounded.

This is because one of the members of the public sector associations (PSAs), the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), has taken a stand not to partake in meetings with government. This follows the fact that in one of the cases between government and the trade union, the administration questioned its locus standi. A source close to the matter said following government’s decision to question the NAPSAWU’s locus standi, the union  informed the administration in writing that it would not partake in any meeting with it until the matter at hand was resolved. The source said the employer, through the government negotiation team (GNT), was supposed to invite PSAs to the roundtable, where one of the issues to be discussed was the 2021/22 salary review. He said this follow the fact that government asked the PSAs to withdraw the issue of the salary review from court so that it could be discussed at the roundtable.

This publication gathered that on July 27, 2021 government, through the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service, Sipho Tsabedze, sent a correspondence to the four unions under the PSAs banner and invited them to a virtual Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF) today at 10am. However, on Monday, government sent another letter to the PSAs, postponing the proposed JNF. In the letter, the PS said the Ministry of Public Service was advising them that the meeting which was scheduled for August 4, 2021 (today) had been postponed to Wednesday August 11, 2021 at 10am. The PS confirmed the postponement of the JNF and said the reason was that NAPSAWU had pulled out of any meetings with the employer pending the finalisation of the issue of the union’s locus standi. He added that until the issue was sorted, it would be impossible to have the JNF because they would not form a quorum. The JNF guidelines say it cannot be held if one of the members of PSAs was not available. NAPSAWU President Oscar Nkambule also confirmed the developments.

It is worth noting that civil servants last had a salary review during the 2016/17 financial year, wherein the public sector workers were awarded between 14 and 32 per cent increments. It was agreed that another one would be held this financial year.
On another note, there were appeals regarding the 2016/17 salary review and recently, government told the PSAs that it had reserved about E85 million for the implementation of the said appeals. However, it said the money was used on COVID-19 related needs and as such government did not have money for the exercise.  After that, government submitted that the 2021/22 salary review exercise would not be held until the economic situation of the country had improved. Thereafter, since the unions were armed with a court order that it obtained using a the 2016/17 collective agreement between the two parties, which was to the effect that in 2021/22, there should be a salary review and government was supposed to implement its recommendations as it is, took the employer to court. It was then that government asked the PSAs to withdraw the matter from court so that they could discuss if at the roundtable.

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