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1 600 CIVIL SERVANTS TO SHARE E65M FROM 2016 APPEALS

21/03/2023 15:20:00 Sibusiso Zwane

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MANZINI - About 1 600 civil servants will smile all the way to the bank as they are to share E65 million for their 2016 salary review appeals.

This follows developments that government has implemented the recommendations of the Appeals Board, regarding the 2016 salary review appeals and the positive adjustments in the affected workers’ pay scale were added into their salaries for March 2023. It is worth noting that government has about 44 000 workers and the 1 600 civil servants who will benefit from the E65 million make only 3.64 per cent of the workforce. The latest developments were confirmed by the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service, Sipho Tsabedze, who said the adjustments were backdated to April 1, 2022.

Implementation

A source close to the matter said the implementation of the Appeals Board recommendations regarding the 2016 salary review appeals, resulted in some delays in the running of the payroll for the public sector workers, as it was run on Saturday March 18, 2023, yet under normal circumstance this is done around the 15th of every calendar month. The PS said civil servants whose appeals were successful and would get a better paying scale this month were 1 600. He said other appeals were not successful, thus some of the workers’ salaries would remain the same. When asked how government had implemented the recommendations of the Appeals Board since the appeals dated back to 2016, the PS said they had backdated the payment to April 1, 2022.

Appeals

The PS was asked how much the implementation of the recommendations had cost government, to which he said the money that had been paid to the 1 600 public sector workers amounted to E65 million. It is worth noting that the E65 million was announced to have been set aside for appeals, by the Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg, when he was delivering his budget speech for the 2022/23 financial year. Prior to this, government had budgeted E85 million for the 2016 salary review appeals, but later on, the Government Negotiation Team (GNT) informed the Public Sector Unions (PSUs) of Swaziland at the Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF) that the money was used towards the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

This publication gathered that some civil servants started getting paid yesterday. Others said their salaries had not changed while some, especially teachers, noticed some positive adjustments. The salary review appeals came about after some workers raised concerns that they believed that the salary review report was doctored. As such, the PSUs filed a number of appeals with government and they had been pending since 2017. It is also worth noting that government implemented the 2016 salary review recommendations when some civil servants, who had seen a leaked report, complained that it was not what they expected. Among the civil servants who raised concerns were principal human resource officers, who expressed their displeasure with the said re-grading. They said their re-graded post was of less benefit to them, given that it would only afford them a difference of E469.77. This, they said, was because most of them were on Notch 5 of Grade D4, while the re-graded post was D5.

Benefit

They claimed that when assuming this post, they would still not benefit as the difference between pay and Notch 1 of Grade D5 was the aforementioned amount. On the other hand, some officers who were graded B5, which has an annual salary of E112 340.04 or a monthly remuneration of E9 631.67, were re-graded to C3. This new grade has a monthly salary of E10 212.96, which equals E122 555.58 per annum. This tallies a review of about E581.30 per month on what they are currently earning. This calculation is based on an employee who currently earns under Notch 1. Officers who are in these grades and their positions were re-graded, include cooperative officers and cooperative auditors under the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade. Their positions were said to have been reviewed due to the scope of work and nature of their jobs.

Also in this grade are labour inspectors, assistant human resources officers, and estate accounts examiner, clerk of court /interpreter and estate officer. Civil servants made their feelings known in various platforms, with some contacting this publication to express their displeasure in the re-graded posts. Their reaction was subsequent to the publication of some of the grades which have been reviewed upwards following about 145 appeals which were submitted by the PSUs on behalf their members. The report, which came almost seven years after the salary review was effected, was presented to the four PSUs last month. In 2016, when the salary review report was effected, there were eight grades which SNAT appealed against. The teachers union bemoaned that their members in these grades were made worse-off.

These grades are: B2 Notch 1 which is that of PTD holders. There was also was an appeal against grade C2 Notch 5, which is held by holders of primary teachers’ certificates. Another grade is C3 Notch 1, which is held by teachers who have STDs, PTDs and BA in Humanities. Another grade that was appealed against was C4 Notch 1 and also C5 Notch 1. Despite this, these grades did not form part of the report as they were not listed in the report.