WHAT LIES BEHIND THE ESWATINI GOVERNMENTS NEGOTIATIONS STRATEGY?

 

WHAT LIES BEHIND THE ESWATINI GOVERNMENT’S NEGOTIATIONS STRATEGY?

Written by Fundizwi Sikhondze

The Government of eSwatini seems to be engaged in a strategy to sabotage any form of negotiations with the public service trade unions under the banner of the Public Service Associations (PSAs). 

In analysing the governments unfolding strategy it seems that the overall strategy is to drive  PSA’s to accept the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) offer of 3% first before any discussion on other issues at the negotiations table can then be started. Perhaps this way the government sees an escape route from having to deal with the contentious salary review issue  which unfortunately is a key demand for the PSA’s and an issue the PSA's would prefer settled before the negotiations on other issues can commence.

Research has unearthed that the government is under severe pressure from global financial institutions, primarily the IMF and the World Bank, not to increase its wage bill. The IMF and World Bank have both heavily supported the eSwatini government during the COVID-19 period ,the latest being the 10th May 2022 loan of 1.2 Billion that was approved by the World bank for eSwatini COVID-19 recovery.  There are other loans that benefit institutions such as the Swaziland Water Development Enterprise (SWADE). The prospects of threatening these future loans and also of getting negative reviews in the ratings agencies (Moodys in particular) and then not being afforded the loans in the future is too much to bear for the Cleopas government. 

Ofcourse the contrary is that the government has since last week started processes to  recruit army personnel ,as it had recruited prisons and police personnel in later 2021. The final prisons and police recruits list have still not been confirmed ,however the recruitment in the armed forces will certainly increase the wage bill but can be explained to international financial institutions because the financial institutions also expect assurances of a conducive environment for trade so the government can repay the loans.

It should not elude the minds that these 2022/23 financial year negotiations take place with the backdrop of disturbing recent occurrences where on the 20^th October 2021 the government unleashed brute force in order to stop PSAs from delivering a petition on the contentious issues under the negotiations framework between the two parties, particularly the issue of the salary review which the PSAs suspected was being disregarded by the government even though the salary review is an agreement reached by the two parties. Scores of public service workers were injured o the day, some quite seriously.

With the recent increases of way above 60% in some food items such as cooking oil,  as well as fuel and other necessities the salary review appears to be the primary basis upon which any form of negotiations about public sector wages can take off this year and since they believe that the salary review is already delayed by at least two years now and with the delays the wages of public service workers are now lagging far behind. Such wages may fall short in  catering for the needs of public service workers and may cause low productivity and some cases serious issues such as suicide. 

In the 2022/23 period of negotiations it seems that the only sleeve up the government’s sleeve is trickery. To get their strategy off the ground they first intended to use the newly recognised Eswatini Principals Association (EPA) to break the unity of workers. It is not clear if EPA membership constitutes a majority in the Principals bargaining g unit or even if head teachers can be categorised as a bargaining unit in the same sector where SNAT bargains for head teachers according to their recognition agreement with the same government.

The second strategy it seems was unleashed last week (1June 2022) and it entailed just simply collapsing and cancelling meetings and claiming not to form the quorum. This strategy is meant to pile pressure on the PSA leadership by the membership who are expected to realise the futility of pursuing the salary review and then pressure their leadership to just accept the three percent COLA offered by the government.

It is public knowledge now that the PSAs staged a protest and delivered a petition to the Ministry of Public Service on 1 June 2022 calling for the government to convene the negotiations. The government has since responded positively to this petition by convening a meeting on Wednesday the 8^th June 2022 in Mbabane.

We shall be keeping the ears to the ground as to what will transpire in the meeting and whether any progress shall be recorded for the workers.