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Mbabane – Prison officers, police officers, principals, politicians and senior government officials yesterday signed a 4 per cent Cost of Living Adjustment Bill (CoLA).
This comes after the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Swaziland Principals Association (EPA) signed a collective agreement on behalf of its non-union civil service members. Once the bill is signed, it means that all civil servants across the country will receive a 4% CoLA. There are about 43,751 civil servants in the country. The Government Negotiating Team (GNT) proposed a 3% CoLA for the 2024/2025 fiscal year, while the EPA has asked for 4% plus a one-time CoLA of 1%. Public Service Principal Secretary (PS) Sipho Tsabedze confirmed that they have signed an agreement with the EPA.
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Tsabaze said they will now implement the agreement reached between the Swaziland Public Service Union (PSU) and the EPA, adding that a circular will be issued soon. The Department of Public Service said that if all goes well, they hope all public servants will receive their pay increase this month, with the increase to be retroactive to April 1, 2024. In an interview with the Secretary General of the Environmental Protection Agency, Mduduzi Masilela, he said they had to suspend the negotiations on the 1% one-time subsidy pending the consultation process between GNT and its principals.
Masilela said the National Tax Service then assured that the adjustments would be implemented from July 2024 and retroactive to April 1, 2024.
When asked if they were happy with the proposal, Masilela said 4% was the minimum they could accept after taking into account key factors such as the loss of purchasing power and the increase in prices of basic goods and services because the government was supposed to implement a wage review in 2021 according to the court order of July 6, but they have not received a penny in the past few years. This has not happened yet, causing more suffering for workers.
Masilela said the demand for the 1% one-off subsidy was a testament to the EPA’s efforts to ease inflationary pressures faced by members despite the subsidy. All parties involved signed the collective agreement after the state-owned enterprise demanded a 7.2% tax rate last week. The PSU and GNT held two meetings for the CoLA, while the EPA and the employer signed the agreement after one meeting.
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