CIVIL SERVANTS CAN SUBMIT UNION RESIGNATIONS TO GOVT - AG

MANZINI – Civil servants who tendered their resignations from public service unions (PSUs) can submit the letters to the employer to stop the subscriptions.

This was said by the Attorney General (AG), Sifiso Mashampu Khumalo, when sought for comment on what could be the recourse for the civil servants who were no longer keen to have the PSUs of Swaziland bargaining on their behalf on labour-related matters. The AG was engaged subsequent to that this publication yesterday reported that despite tendering resignation letters to their unions, some civil servants were disappointed to learn that their subscriptions were deducted for this month and would not get the three per cent cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) and one per cent once-off, which was awarded to un-unionised civil servants.

The civil servants were members of the four unions forming 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). These unions collectively represent about 21 535 workers, based on their membership updates from the 42 686 civil servants recorded in the Establishment Register for the financial year 2022/23. It is worth noting that not all civil servants are eligible to be part of unions as there are those classified as un-unionisable workers in the civil service. These are public workers in management, members of the security forces and politicians.

Collectively, civil servants (unionised and un-unionised) draw their salary from a wage bill which was projected to be around E7.3 billion at the end of the past financial year (March 31, 2022). The aspiration to resign from the unions by some civil servants is subsequent to a collective agreement signed on June 27, 2022 by the Government Negotiation Team (GNT) and the Eswatini Principals Association (EPA), which saw un-unionisable civil servants being awarded three per cent CoLA of the monthly basic salary across the board which was backdated to April 1, 2022. In addition to this, they received a once-off payment of their one per cent of annual basic salary across the board.

Failing

This resulted in those who are under the banner of PSUs being left out as at the time, the GNT and the unions were failing to agree on their agenda for the year. The act of awarding a certain faction of personnel seemingly brought panic among those paying subscriptions to unions, resulting in others tendering resignation letters from their various unions. Meanwhile, Khumalo said the civil servants had a right to get a letter from their unions confirming that they had resigned and if they were without them, they could alternatively submit a copy of their resignation letters to the employer to stop the deduction of subscriptions to the unions they had resigned from. A last resort, Khumalo said, could be litigation, which he said was costly to the aggrieved. He said those who had resigned could submit to a court of law that they had resigned and, therefore, they should not have subscriptions deducted from their salaries.

On the other hand, SNAT Secretary General (SG) Sikelela Dlamini was on Wednesday quoted by this publication saying members who tendered resignations from his organisation were advised to get clearance letters from SNAT’s co-operative. This, he said, was to ensure that they were not indebted to the organisation. He said they were also asked to go to SNAT Burial to check if they did not owe anything from there as well. He was quoted saying out of the 50 members who resigned from SNAT, only one member returned with the desired clearance letter, which was then forwarded to the relevant offices within government in order to stop the monthly subscriptions from the resigned member’s salary. On the other hand, Dlamini advised their members to stay put in their organisations as the three per cent they were seeking was minimal to the benefits that they stood to lose if and when they resigned.

He also emphasised that unionised civil servants were also guaranteed CoLA once negotiations on the item were concluded by the PSUs and the GNT.
They were expected to ensue on Wednesday; however, the negotiations were postponed at the 11th hour, to September 21, 2022 as members of the GNT were engaged in other commitments.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: