UNESWA WORKERS’ SALARIES DELAYED AGAIN

MANZINI – Yet another delayed payment of salaries for University of Eswatini (UNESWA) employees.

The university has issued an internal memo notifying the employees about the delay. Released by the Registrar, Dr Salebona Simelane yesterday, he highlighted that the October 2022 staff salaries will be delayed due to shortage of funds. Dr Simelane said efforts to address the matter were underway. The registrar stated that any inconvenience caused was regretted. He did not divulge further on the matter. Worth noting is that UNESWA employees get remunerated on the 19th of every month. In August, the university released a memo notifying employees about the delay in salaries. Dr Simelane attributed the delay to insufficient financial resources. However, he assured that every effort would be made to ensure that the salaries were paid by next Friday August 26, 2022.

Unacceptable

Meanwhile, the Association of Lecturers, Academic and Administrative Personnel (ALAAP) General Secretary (SG), Dr Mduduzi Shongwe said the association noted with disappointment the contents, having said it was unacceptable to the hardworking members of the ALAAP. Shongwe stated that it was deplorable that such communication was made on the eve of pay day, which caught members off guard.“This will cause serious prejudice and repercussions to members, both financially and psychologically. Consequently, ALAAP views your emorandum with the highest contempt it deserves,” he said.

The SG further highlighted that not only was management’s conduct unlawful and inhumane, but also violated the terms and conditions of service.
“For this reason, should ALAAP members not get their well deserved remuneration on time, it will be regrettably impossible for them to execute their duties,” Dr Shongwe said. Further, he disclosed that following negotiations on cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) with the university about a fortnight ago, they did not find each other on the negotiations table. Shongwe said the reason was that members stated that they were willing to go down to three per cent and accept, only if they notched. He noted that members had not notched since 2018.

The SG also disclosed that in response, management stated that they had no money for notching and that was where they did not see eye-to-eye.
“Therefore, we entered a cooling off period of 14 days, which ended yesterday. Our Recognition Agreement says after the 14 days, we have to meet again to see if we now find each other. We have been asking for that meeting since last week, management is now refusing to commit on a meeting date,” he said. Meanwhile, Dr Shongwe alluded that they would continue with lunch pickets to express their dissatisfaction with the stalling of the talks at the negotiations table. He said they would consult members to recharge the mandate on what to do if management continued to avoid the table.
“Otherwise, if in the next meeting, we still don’t find each other, we have to agree on a deadlock and then we go back to our members to get a mandate to start the Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CMAC) process that builds towards a legal strike. We honestly don’t want to get there as we believe we can still find each other if we negotiate,” he mentioned.

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