Swazi Observer

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PSAS MUST FOCUS

By ALEC LUSHABA Editor | 2020-01-27

PUBLIC sector associations (PSAs) have threatened to engage in more protest action to force government to accede to their demand for payment of Cost of Living Adjustment, otherwise known as CoLA.

Over the past weekend, one of the leading members of the PSAs, the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), tested waters on whether they will succeed in their campaigns to take members to the streets by hosting what they termed a national prayer service.

To their disappointment, the numbers were a far cry to what they had expected, as about 50 teachers are said to have turned up for the so-called prayer.

SNAT and its ilk need to know that the issue of CoLA is a real concern and cannot be politicised beyond what it is.

Public servants, just like any other employee, be it in the public or private sector, want their salaries to be adjusted and the fact that they have not been adjusted for the past three years is a major cause for concern.

However, public sector associations’ members are government employees who are alive to the situation. No one can tell them any better whether government has the resources to pay them or not than themselves.

attention

To them, anything that de-focuses them from the main issue is a waste of time and it appears they don’t have the energy to walk the streets for something that they know needs their undivided attention to get.

When the Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini-led government came into office, they admitted that workers have not been paid CoLA for the past two years and made a commitment to do so in the 2020/21 budget.

At the time, that target appeared too far, but workers accepted the reality. In between that commitment, the PSAs leaders have engaged in negotiations which were punctuated by strike actions.

On two occasions, government has run to court to stop the strike action, which in her view was becoming violent and no longer adhering or conforming to the dictates of a legal strike.

In dismissing the September 23 strike action, Industrial Court Judge Abande Dlamini said: “The right to strike has always been and still remains the cornerstone of the collective bargaining system in Eswatini. For that reason, one therefore needs to state it categorically that strikes that are characterised by violence and unruly behaviour are detrimental to the legal foundation upon which our labour relations as a country are founded.”

He added that this was detrimental and further extends and causes irreversible harm to the country’s already struggling economy.

The judge explained that by and large the aim of a strike is to persuade the employer through peaceful withdrawal of labour to agree to the employee’s demands.

Judge Dlamini said it is therefore expected, and in fact acceptable, that a certain degree of disruption may be expected in the workplace during a strike.

“However, it is not acceptable to force employers through violent or other unlawful conduct, to accede to their (unions) demands. Such violent or other unlawful conduct seriously erodes and sabotages the fundamental values upon which this very strike is firmly founded and rooted.

“Not only that, such conduct negates the rights of non-striking workers to continue to exercise their democratic right of working with dignity, in a safe and secure workplace,” he stated.

The above conduct, as Judge Dlamini stated, has undermined the CoLA negotiations and with time ticking towards April 2020, the parties seem to be far apart in this matter.

Instead of focusing on the main issue, as the prime minister promised and assured them of being transparent with the books, PSAs seem to have been fascinated by another agenda of proving that government was not prioritising workers’ needs.

For all its disruptive tactics, government has been sticking to its guns. It promised workers a minimum of three per cent, saying if the situation by this time would have improved, it would consider more.

Meanwhile, the PSAs have been calling for a bumper payback, recalling all the years they have not been paid CoLA.

As for how much public servants are paid as CoLA is not going to be determined by persuasive negotiators, but the reality of the numbers of economic growth achieved in the period 2018 to now.

The numbers would show whether government’s economic recovery strategies have been successful to warrant such pay.

The PSAs, instead of engaging in futile street marches, they need to go back to the table to see whether meaningful progress in terms of economic recovery is being made. These negotiations should help them to even focus how much CoLA is likely to be paid for the years coming, based on the economic recovery strategies being applied now.

focus

If the PSAs leadership continues to shun the table and focus on other areas of their interest, the workers would need to make a conscious decision whether it still serves them well to have leaders who are more interested in other issues than their improved conditions of service.

Judge Dlamini was clear in his judgment, the courts would have minimal role in intervening in these industrial matters if government does not keep its part of the bargain by paying the workers CoLA as promised.

However, the payment of such CoLA will not just be an event but a process that involves engagement and agreement. This process will not happen in April, but is supposed to have started long time ago.

PSAs leaders must focus and understand that they represent a broader section of society, not just a few members interested in a political agenda.

Recent calls for mass demonstrations and the failed prayer on Saturday must be indicative of the attitude of its broader membership going forward.

Workers and everyone else would love to get CoLA and the agenda must be clear and not be mixed with other hidden agendas.

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