Parastatals threaten to march

MBABANE – Parastatals’ workers have threatened to march to Cabinet offices to demand an eight per cent major.

This was disclosed by Parastatals Union Coordination Council (PUCC) Secretary Churchboy Dlamini yesterday. He said this resolution was reached during a mass meeting of the unions’ executive held last Saturday.

“As PUCC membership, we resolved to march to Cabinet offices as our next step if government fails to respond to our grievances by close of business today. We have given government enough time to respond to our demands but seemingly they have elected not to respond, hence our decision to march to Cabinet. Maybe they do not want to respond to us in writing before we march to table our grievances,” Dlamini said.
Dlamini declined to disclose the proposed date of the march except to say logistics would be finalised during a mass meeting scheduled for Saturday.      

Parastatals tabled an eight per cent major demand for the 2013/2014 financial year. A major is the percentage offered by government to parastatals which becomes the basis of salary increment negotiations at each of the companies during the current year.

Dlamini explained that some of the parastatals represented by PUCC were not supposed to strike because they offer essential services.
Some of the companies which are affiliated to PUCC include the Swaziland Electricity Company, Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation and Swaziland Water Services Corporation among others.  

   
“As organisations that offer essential services, we expected government to swiftly respond to our demands but seemingly we will not get any response anytime soon.” According to Dlamini, the major should be the average inflation of the current financial year minus one per cent. This effectively means, the major for the 2013/14 financial year should have been eight per cent since the average inflation rate was nine per cent.
Initially, government offered a five per cent major that was rejected by the PUCC affiliates.

Public Enterprises Unit Circular No.3 of 2013 directed to all Chief Executive Officers states that, if any of the parastatals might want to increase their employees’ salaries above five per cent; it had to be approved by government.
Government Press Secretary Percy Simelane said there was nothing wrong with the workers marching to Cabinet provided they followed the law to the letter in doing so.

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