SALARY REVIEW: Government raises E1.29bn

Government has raised E1.29 billion for the long-awaited salary review after strong pushback from civil servants. SNAT says workers demand full implementation.

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Government has raised E1.29 billion for the long-awaited salary review after strong pushback from civil servants. SNAT says workers demand full implementation
Government has raised E1.29 billion for the long-awaited salary review after strong pushback from civil servants. SNAT says workers demand full implementation
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GOVERNMENT has raised up-to E1.29 billion towards the implementation of the salary review this month.


This was announced by Swaziland National Association of Swaziland (SNAT) President Mbongwa Dlamini yesterday when updating public servants following the joint negotiation forum (JNF) convened yesterday.
The JNF was held simultaneously with the public sector unions (PSUs) petition delivery to Cabinet.

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The E1.29 billion is an improvement from the E500 million that government had earlier announced it could afford for the implementation of the salary review.
With the E500 million, which was less than the E1.643 billion that had been recommended by the consultant, government had hinted on a phased implementation over two financial years, which civil servants rejected.

When updating them, the SNAT president said the GNT requested to pay the civil servants 64% of the amount that had been recommended by the consultant, and then settle the balance in the first week of July next year.
However, the workers rejected this and demanded for the full implementation of the salary review.

He also informed the civil servants that government had requested to pay their allowances in phases, which the civil servants also rejected.
On another note, Dlamini said for civil servants paid under Grades A and B, whom the consultant reportedly felt would not be affected by the review, government had offered to pay them a 3% once-off.

He further noted that some of the figures that the consultant had recommended for allowances had since changed. During their march to cabinet, the civil servants said history had it that government never implemented the salary review without the workers nudging them a bit. Therefore, they said they would not accept government’s proposal to implement the review in phases, especially because in the past, government had failed to honour its promises.

“Government has a tendency of blatantly delaying the salary review in order to save funds for itself. In 2004, government failed to remunerate workers accordingly and the workers who were on the foot of the food chain, that is the As and Bs were left out in the review and to-date,” claimed the workers in their petition.
They added that the next salary review was supposed to be in 2009, but it ended up being effected in 2014.

“The 2014 salary review was implemented two years down the line in 2016 and it was partially implemented after a heavy fight where government was refusing to release the salary review report. Workers in that year got peanuts while those in high echelons of power got hefty pay cheques,” the workers said.

Further, they claimed that government did not honour the 2016 collective agreement that had been signed to the effect that the next salary review would be in 2021, and that in the next financial year, government would implement the recommended allowances.
“That agreement never saw the light of day to-date, and even today the allowances have not been implemented.
Despite the 2023 mickey-mouse appeals implementations by government, when it comes to workers it is always citing lack of a budget,” they said.

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