Workers in the public sector have resolved that in order to force government to realise the need for the implementation of reviewed salaries, they will march and picket weekly.
At a consultative meeting held at Pigg’s Peak Red Cross hall yesterday, PSUs members also unanimously agreed that they would accompany their leadership to the salary review negotiations tomorrow.
This they would do because they feel government playing delaying tactics on the salary review.
“The delay in implementing the salary review is tiresome, we need to pressurise government to implement it. It’s long overdue,” the members said.
In Mbabane, SNAT member Sikelela Dlamini said workers should picket and other accompany the PSUs leadership to the JNF in demand of the salary review so that government would not have the opportunity to dangle the cost of living (CoLA) carrot instead.
SNAT Deputy Secretary General Mxolisi Ngcamphalala, when updating the PSU members about the salary review exercise, said while the consultant had all along been confident that they would meet the deadline for presenting the report on June 30, which was yesterday, and government had been adamant that its implementation would be this year, the notion given by the latter was that this would not happen. “Government’s actions atsi khohlwani nge salary review this year.
Related: PSUs looking forward to Salary Review Report
From a layman’s point of view, if the consultant had stuck to its timelines, the exercise could have been completed in May and then June would have been dedicated to winding up everything,” opined Ngcamphalala.
When making submissions, the public sector workers said they could not wait for four months because they had waited for a long time for the review. They mentioned that the review was supposed to have been implemented in 2021. “Nalabazilako bazila 40 days and 40 nights. Lo four months utophela sesibolile.
We currently cannot afford our family’s daily upkeep. If we allow the consultant the four months, we would be setting a bad precedent and government would do this to us again in future,” submitted Sibusiso Mamba.
The workers said they had been hopeful that with this year’s salary review they would get a breather from the financial burdens that ‘pile-up’ yearly.
Sabelo Matimba added that it was clear that government was playing hide and seek, so he suggested that the PSUs leadership should demand for the report from the consultant. Another worker Musa Shongwe said if only the army had not forwarded the required information, the consultant should continue presenting the available data.
“About 75 per cent of what needs to be reported should be available, so the consultant must deliver it without the army’s input. I doubt that the extension will force the consultant to expedite the exercise,” submitted Shongwe.
Additionally, the workers mentioned that a lot of civil servants were clients at the National Psychiatric Referral Hospital on mental health challenges which they said were mainly caused by financial distress.
They said if they continued to allow government to “get away with murder,” more would even die from depression and other ailments caused by the continued suffering.
The PSUs leadership was further implored to demand an audience with Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini and request him to stop interfering with the salary review process. Reached on the workers’ resolutions, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service Mthunzi Shabangu asked not to respond to what he termed private resolutions. He said the PSUs leadership would present the resolutions to the JNF tomorrow.
Unions’ advice for new PS
NEW Principal Secretary in the ministry of Public Service Mthunzi Shabangu has been advised to refer to his predecessor’s files and notes so as to be abreast with the salary review issue.
Public sector workers said if the four-month extension was Shabangu’s idea, he should just forget as they would not allow such.
“Though he is new, we expect everything we agreed on long time pertaining to the salary review.
The report was expected to be out at the end of June, that is today. As a chief negotiator, it’s the PS of the same ministry who also endorsed his signature, the report by now should be in our hands,” said one of the speakers.
Other speakers said Shabangu needed to stick to what all parties agreed upon and if he was not sure, he must refer to the documents he found in the office.
“We know government is good at buying time; we need the report by Wednesday or else we will do everything in our power to get it.”
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