swaziland times

BABANE – Some civil servants yesterday celebrated receiving a 4 per cent cost-of-living allowance which they said would save their lives.

They shared their happiness on different social media platforms, such as the SNAT platform, and also through the Facebook page of this publication. This means that the country’s civil servants will receive a 4% salary increase and will be retroactive to April 1, 2024, giving government employees a bumper paycheck at the end of this month.
The collective agreement was signed during the Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF) held at the Public Service Ministry conference room yesterday morning.

The Swaziland Public Sector Union (PSU) initially demanded from employers a cost of living adjustment (CoLA) of 7.27% for 2024/25, compared to the government’s demand of 3%. These PSUs include: the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) and the Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP).

membership

The SOEs represent about 21,535 public service workers, while employers are represented by the Government Negotiating Team (GNT), according to membership updates from four unions.
Civil servants represented by state-owned enterprises are only a small fraction of the 42,686 public servants, with the remainder being employees who cannot join unions. They include senior government officials, politicians and members of the national security forces. The state-owned enterprise submitted a position paper last week supporting the 7.27% inflation call, noting that the country’s economic growth rate was 3.1% last year, while inflation was 4.1%.

They claim that the salary adjustments they received in previous years were always well below actual inflation. As a result, they say, workers’ wages continue to be eroded because of the low annual cost-of-living allowance provided by employers. They complained that the government should have implemented the wage review in 2021 as per the court order of July 6, 2016, but it has not been implemented so far, resulting in more losses for the workers. The union said employers received a larger share of funding from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), which they understood could fund the CoLA.

On the other hand, employers say that the wage bill is around 9 billion euros and they can only cover 3%. The National Party said in a position paper that wages remain the largest component of the budget, accounting for 34% of total spending. Employers say the wage bill accounts for 10.4% of gross domestic product (GDP).
It is said that while wage expenditure had been kept at around 8 billion euros in the past few years, it has now reached the 9 billion euro mark, indicating that the country’s fiscal pressure continues.
The National Trades Union (GNT) argued that the employment in certain industries and the awarding of CoLAs had resulted in an increase in the wage bill for the 2023/24 financial year, undermining efforts to control wages and setting a higher base for the upcoming pay review in the next financial year.

However, despite these positions expressed by both parties, they reached a compromise yesterday. This was confirmed by the chairperson of the National Electoral Commission, Mbonwa Dlamini, who said that despite the gap, which was too small, it was still an achievement. Furthermore, Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Public Service Sipho Tsabedze said that following the meeting last week, they held another meeting yesterday and agreed on the percentages. Sabez said that although the reduction was too small, it was expected to make a difference. He said they were happy that both parties had agreed on the percentage that employers should pay.

The PS also explained that the collective agreement stipulates that civil servants will receive 4% of their wages. He clarified that unlike previous years where the 4% was split into two parts, namely a one-time deduction of 1% from the annual salary of civil servants and then an addition of 3% to their remuneration, this time, they agreed to deduct 4%.