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COLA WEEKEND FOR SOME CIVIL SERVANTS

16/08/2022 09:16:00 Stanley Khumalo

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MANZINI – Civil servants, who qualify for the three per cent cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA), will be all smiles this weekend.

This is because the Treasury Department at the Ministry of Finance has computed the salaries for civil servants this month with the new adjustments. The adjustments, which were suspended last month due to technical challenges, are the implementation of the across board for managers and non-unionisable civil servants. Impeccable sources yesterday informed this publication that the new scale of remuneration for qualifying civil servants was uploaded and was reflecting on the system.

Unionised

The sources disclosed that the new figures were not implemented on civil servants who were members of unions. Unionised civil servants are represented by the Public Sector Unions (PSUs) of Swaziland, which is a collection of associations in the various sectors of the public service and namely, they are: National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) and Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP). Yesterday, Communication Officer in the Ministry of Finance Setsabile Dlamini confirmed that the August payroll had been run with the three per cent CoLA and once-off payment of one per cent of their annual basic salary. This follows that the ministry received a Circular from the Ministry of Public Service with the new salary scale. The circular, in a previous comment she said, was directed to the Treasury Department.

Also, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service, Sipho Tsabedze, said: “Indeed all non-unionised civil servants will get the three per cent CoLA and one per cent once-off, as agreed between government and EPA (Eswatini Principals Association).” Tsabedze said the implementation of the CoLA was not expected to cloud the ongoing JNF negotiations.
He said this after being sought for information on whether the three per cent CoLA and once-off one per cent of annual salary across board for managers and non-unionisable civil servants was deposited in the accounts of deserving civil servants and if yes, would it not cloud the ongoing negotiations in the JNF.

Worth noting is that the implementation of the new salary scale effecting the three per cent CoLA and once-off one per cent of annual salary across board for managers and non-unionisable civil servants is at the backdrop of the PSUs and the Government Negotiation Team (GNT) agreeing in their negotiations of the agenda in the joint negotiation forum (JNF).
The PSUs, according to their projections, are to engage in CoLA with the employer next month. On the other hand, the PSUs and GNT agreement and resumption of the JNF was subsequent to a deadlock which resulted in government engaging only in negotiations with the EPA. Minister of Public Service Mabulala Maseko, on July 4, 2022, in a statement said government had taken a decision to award three per cent CoLA to managers and non-unionisable civil servants with effect from last month. Maseko said the CoLA would be backdated to April 1, 2022, which is the beginning of government’s financial year. The adjustment which was announced by the minister in the salary of civil servants was last implemented in August 2020, wherein a similar offer was awarded after three years.

Increment

This increment, he said, was subsequent to an agreement reached by government with EPA wherein the pair had engaged in novel negotiations parallel to those with PSUs, who have from time immemorial, been negotiating for civil servants. He said on April 28, 2022, the GNT and EPA commenced negotiations on the CoLA for the 2022/2023 financial year. The GNT offered three per cent of basic salary across the board with effect from April 1, 2022. EPA, on the other hand, countered that offer, demanded six per cent CoLA on the basis that this would cushion the salaries of their members which had been eroded over the years. As negotiations continued, and appreciating the parlous financial situation of government, EPA eventually moved from its initial CoLA demand of six per cent to a final fall-back position of three per cent demand, plus a once-off sweetener of one per cent of annual basic salary across the board.