By Mbono Mdluli | 2019-09-17
MEMBERS of Parliament (MPs) have criticised Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini on the manner the government has handled the looming PSAs’ strike action.
The MPs expressed their criticism yesterday during a normal House of Assembly sitting. The legislators stated that government could have handled this matter in a better way. PSAs are unions representing civil servants and they include Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Swaziland National Association of Civil Servants (SNACS), Swaziland Nurses Association (SNA), and Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP). The lawmakers used the PM’s statement, which he delivered to the MPs yesterday. They used the ministerial statement delivered by the premier. The statement was the same as the one that government delivered on Friday last week.
Some MPs felt the government was handling the matter as if it was above the law because it knew that nothing would happen against its will.
The government, according to the MPs, appeared as if it was ready to crush civil servants who would take part in the looming strike action.
Some felt government was now singing a different tune on the matter concerning the three per cent cost of living adjustment of 2020/21 financial year.
In the statement, the prime minister stated that the civil servants would get a three per cent increment in the mentioned financial year, if the economic situation of the country improved. Some MPs felt the government was now playing hide and seek because when the offer was first mentioned, no conditions were put forward. They felt the word ‘if’ could cause unrest in the country.
In response, the prime minister stated that the government was living within the ambit of the law. It has engaged the PSAs on the roundtable and they were still prepared to engage even further with the PSAs so that a lasting solution could be reached over the matter.
The premier told the House that as government, they hoped that the proposed strike action would not take place in the country. He further told the MPs that government had two options to address the wage bill. One was to retrench some civil servants and the other would be to retain the workers and never increase their salaries.
Dlamini said the situation was so bad such that when they got into office in November 2018, they had a problem of paying civil servants for the months of November and December. They had problems of soliciting the very basic salaries, not the cost of living adjustments or salary reviews.
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