CIVIL SERVANTS RESIGNATIONS: UNIONS FEAR LOSING RECOGNITION

MANZINI – There are fears that the resignation of some civil servants from unions could lead to them losing recognition agreements.

The fear came at a time when about 365 civil servants are said to have tendered their resignation letters of membership from the public service unions (PSUs). These civil servants are said to be those who were unionised and, therefore, did not benefit from the three per cent cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) of the monthly basic salary across the board which was backdated to April 1, 2022. In addition to this, they also did not get the once-off payment of one per cent of annual basic salary across the board. The about 365 members are said to have tendered their resignations from the membership of the PSUs which 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).

Agreements

Secretary General of SNAGAP, Phumzile Masilela expressed concerns that this could result in some unions losing their recognition agreements as their numbers ‘may dwindle’ if the resignations continued unopposed. She said in her organisation, there were about seven resignations which included people who were closer to retirement. It is worth noting that SNAGAP has a membership of about 800 civil servants and the seven resignations would result in their members being around 793. Masilela said the fears that were shared by most of those who tendered their resignations was that they would not be able to get better benefits when they retire as they were left with minimal months in the civil service. “The others who were tendering their resignations with the hope of benefitting from CoLA and once-off payment, were given a breakdown of what their resignations meant and what they stood to benefit when the PSUs completed their negotiations with the employer,” Masilela said.

She also bemoaned that the partitioning of civil servants when awarding the CoLA was the genesis of the resignations and also posed to leave some workers without a union which would negotiate for them when government implemented Enhanced Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme (EVERS). EVERS is targeting to minimise the number of civil servants by about 7 500, according to the Minister of Public Service, Mabulala Maseko. It shall be implemented in a period of two years, starting in the 2023/24 financial year and falling onto the subsequent financial year. Also, according to the Secretary General of SWADNU, Mayibongwe Masangane, his organisation had one nurse who tendered a resignation, who was in the employ of one of the public health facilities. In addition to the single resignation, Masangane said there were seven nurses who tendered their resignations due to being members of the National State Security Forces.

Reduced

SWADNU has a membership of about 2 019 nurses, which means the resignations has reduced it to about 2 011. Meanwhile, Masangane said the seven, in their letters of resignation from the union, claimed that they were not offered the three per cent CoLA and one per cent once-off payment due to their affiliation with the union. He said they also claimed that they were being pressured by their respective employers as they were not expected to be part of a union; but instead, they should join a staff association within their respective security organs.
Masangane said: “The resignation of the members is a concern as it seeks to bring division in the collective bargaining power of workers. It shall also stall our projects which we had initiated basing our revenue on the subscriptions to be collected.”

He also expressed concern that the figures could increase as some of the civil servants were eager to get the CoLA and one per cent once-off payment, regardless of the value or lack of it.
On the other hand, Secretary General of SNAT Sikelela Dlamini said about 50 members resigned from his organisation. He said a majority of them were head teachers who were seeking to benefit from the collective agreement reached by Government Negotiation Team (GNT) and the Eswatini Principals Association (EPA). This collective agreement was signed on June 27, 2022 and resulted in an agreement to implement the three per cent CoLA of monthly basic salary across  board and an additional once-off payment of one per cent of annual basic salary across board with effect from the beginning of the government financial year, April 1, 2022.

Meanwhile, Dlamini said the figure was not shocking to them given that they were recruiting members monthly, while others were also leaving due to natural attritions and or retirement.
He said their membership was currently at 11 420. The secretary general also emphasised that being a member of a union for civil servants outweighed CoLA. Also, on Monday, this publication reported that about 300 unionised civil servants tendered their resignation from NAPSAWU. It was reported that branch executives of the NAPSAWU had received resignation letters from public service employees who were left out during the implementation of the three per cent CoLA for non-unionised employees.

Judiciary

Chairperson of NAPSAWU Mbabane Branch Johannes Simelane, was quoted saying that most of the resignation letters came from Cabinet and a few from other departments, including the Judiciary. He informed this publication that the civil servants who had tendered their resignation letters were hoping that if they ceased being union members, they would be paid the three per cent CoLA, come month end. Simelane said they explained to the resigning employees that the Joint Negotiation Team (JNT) was yet to deal with the issue of CoLA and table an offer at the roundtable with the Government Negotiation Team (GNT) as it (CoLA) was the next item on the agenda. According to Simelane, they were able to convince all but one of the civil servants under the Mbabane branch to be patient and wait for the roundtable process to be finalised. As such, the resignations have been held in ambiance.

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