WITH the salary review taking longer than expected, civil servants’ salaries may be delayed this month.
Normally, civil servants’ salaries are processed starting on the 10th of each month. However, due to extended salary review negotiations, this process has been delayed. As a result, regular pay dates may be postponed to accommodate the delay.
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Highly-placed sources within the Treasury Department, confided that normal pay dates for civil servants may be moved forward after government resolved to delay running salaries for this month, pending the finalisation of the negotiations and signing of the collective agreement. The salary review was finalised, agreed upon and signed on Wednesday.
The insiders also revealed that they anticipated to work overtime so as to fast-track the process. Responding to questions on whether civil servants salaries may be delayed, Ministry of Finance Communications Officer Setsabile Dlamini said a circular from the ministry of public service would advise when salaries would be paid.
“We have not yet received the circular from public service,” she said.
Minister of Public Service Mabulala Maseko stated that the issuance of a circular to potentially postpone pay dates is under consideration.
“The prolonged negotiations could lead to a delay in salary payments, and we are looking into issuing a circular to address this,” he said. However, he noted that providing a definitive response at this stage would be premature.
The minister also mentioned that delayed payment of salaries was normal during backpay.
He further apologised in advance for any possible delay and pleaded for patience and calm from civil servants.
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During a press briefing in Cabinet yesterday, Minister Maseko assured that government was committed to ensuring that civil servants receive their revised salaries this month as per the conditions of the collective agreement signed on Wednesday.
Maseko expressed government’s appreciation following the finalination of the salary review negotiations with the public sector unions (PSUs).
He explained the implementation modalities, adding that government committed to fully implement (i.e. 100% implementation) of all the recommended salary adjustments that are contained in Scenario III of the salary review report, starting from the October, payday, backdated to April.
He added that government also committed to pay 15% of the six months back-pay starting April 1, to September 30, of the recommended salary adjustments.
He added that the 85% remaining back-pay balances shall be paid during the first month (July, 2026) of the second quarter of the financial year 2026/2027. “On behalf of Cabinet and government, I take this opportunity to applaud our social partners (PSUs), all members of the government negotiations team (GNT), the consultants, all members of staff, both within and outside the ministry of public service, who have worked tirelessly in order to get us to this resounding settlement of this matter,” he said.
(l), SWADNU President Nokuthula Dlamini and SNAGAP President Dumile Dlamini during a
press briefing on a final collective agreement over salary review with government at the
ministry of public service. (Pic:Lucky Simelane)
Repeating the statement made when they announced the settlement of the issue of Phase II, the minister said they hoped that the conclusion of negotiations on the salary review would be acceptable and be impactful to all civil servants, including their families.
He stated that in August, 2024, government initiated a salary review exercise whose primary purpose was to evaluate if the salaries of employees within the civil service are fair, competitive and aligned with their performance and motivational for a productive workforce.
Maseko said the exercise was also intended to help address potential pay discrepancies and promote equitable pay practices by comparing salaries of employees in the civil service against industry standards and market rates for similar roles.
“In a nutshell, the salary review project was aimed at modernising, aligning and strengthening the public service remuneration framework,” the minister said.
He said for purposes of accomplishing the objective, government engaged a consultant, being Emergence Human Capital t/a Emergence Growth, a human resource and remuneration consulting firm in Africa, partnering with Umelusi Partners, a local consultancy firm owned by Emaswati.
Maseko explained that the salary review exercise started in August, 2024 and was projected to be completed in June.
He also clarified that the exercise was broken down into time bound stages such as profiling of all positions in the civil service, validation of job profiles, job harmonisation, signing-off of job profiles, job evaluation, remuneration audit, salary benchmark, designing of pay scales, designing a remuneration policy/strategy, developing a policy on allowances, designing an implementation framework, and reporting.
He said following the submission of the final draft salary review report by the consultants on September 29, the GNT together with the National Public Services and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Swaziland Nursing Association (SNA) and Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP), commenced negotiations on the implementation modalities of the salary review report recommendations.
He said extensive negotiations were held on various days starting from October 3 to 8.
The minister said the final result of the negotiations had been a positive one in that government and the social partners (PSUs) succeeded to sign a collective agreement detailing the implementation modalities of the salary review, in a staggered manner beginning October.
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