SAPWU-TAMBANKULU AND TAMBANKULU ESTATES FAIL TO BREAK WAGE NEGOTIATIONS DEADLOCK,STRIKE ACTION POSSIBLE

Workers at a gathering (File picture)

Written by Fundizwi Sikhondze

The anticipated negotiations to resolve the deadlock between Tambankulu Estates and the Swaziland Agriculture ,Plantations Workers Union (SAPWU) - Tambankulu Branch have failed to get the two warring parties to settle their wage deadlock. From the previous deadlock offer of 4.5% for the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) Tambankulu Management has been reported to have only improved the offer to 4.85%,however sources have also pointed out that management has also since improved their offer on education assistance to workers. The figures offered in relation to the education assistance have not been revealed to the ELI.

The failure of the negotiations may imply that the SAPWU Tambankulu will head back to Conciliation, Mediation Arbitration Commission (CMAC) where a few weeks ago they (SAPWU Tambankulu) had sought a certificate of non-resolved dispute. The certificate of unresolved dispute would have allowed SAPWU-Tambankulu to issue a notice for a strike action to the Tambankulu Estates Management. When last the two parties met at CMAC Tambankulu Management had successfully argued that the issue needed to be taken back to internal negotiations in accordance with the recognition agreement between the two parties.

Interviewed by this publication SAPWU Tambakulu branch chairperson Maxwell Ndzimandze confirmed that they are taking the matter back to CMAC because ,"the attempts to resolve the matters through negotiations internally have not worked". Chairperson Ndzimandze further pointed out that from the second round of negotiations management only improved the education assistance and not the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) which currently is substantially placed at 4.85 % and conditionally placed at 5% but only if the union accepts the offer.

Management not pressing panic buttons yet

The management of Tambankulu, on the other hand, is still not pressing the panic buttons as they have stated that they believe that there is still a chance that the dispute can be settled between the two parties before a strike action can be declared. While refusing to be drawn on specific details regarding the negotiations the Tambankulu Estates General Manager (GM) Mr Chris Shabangu indicated that as management they believed that the two social partners will continue to engage in good faith, earnestly in order to arrive at a settlement. "Management is confident that there will be an agreement between the parties as soon as possible for the good of the affected employees" he declared.

This is a developing story with regular updates.

Comments

SNAT PRESIDENT MBONGWA DLAMININ HAS BEEN FIRED BY THE ESWATINI GOVERMENT

Picture: SNAT President Mbongwa Dlamini (Image courtesy of SNAT platform) As of Wednesday 30th September 2023 the President of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Mbongwa Ernest Dlamini (pictured above) has been fired by the Teaching Services Commission (TSC) of the Ministry of Education on behalf of the Government of Eswatini. These news were announced by the SNAT Secretary General Lot Gadaffi Vilakati in the morning of the 30th August 2023 in Mbabane. Comrade Lot announced the unfortunate news to scores of workers that had gathered at the Ministry of Public Service office block for a protest organised by the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) to decry the shortage of health workers and key medicines in the public health system in Mbabane. Secretary General Lot added that SNAT will stick with the president through and through and that if the government was fatally mistaken if they thought president Mbongwa would be discarded or disowned by SNAT now that he

ATUSWA'S WANDER MKHONZA CALLS FOR MORE ATTENTION ON SWAZILAND

ATUSWA Secretary General Comrade Wander Mkhonza addressing the IndustriALL Mid Term Policy Conference in Capetown ,South Africa (Picture courtesy of IndustriALL) Written by Fundizwi Sikhondze The Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland (ATUSWA) Secretary General Comrade Wander Mkhonza ,on Tuesday 20th June 2023, addressed the midterm policy conference of the IndustriALL Global Union currently sitting in Cape Town, South Africa where he called for more attention to be bestowed to the repressed workers in Swaziland by the global union. ATUSWA together with the Swaziland Electricity Supply and Maintenance Workers Union (SESMAWU) are the two Swaziland affiliates of the IndustriALL Global Union. Secretary General Wander drew the conference's attention to the repression that workers face in Swaziland through state repression as well as through the courts. He credited the notorious 1973 decree as the source of the repression in the country to the extent that even when laws are crafted an es

NAPSAWU HAS SUSPENDED THREE NATIONAL OFFICE BEARERS

Written by Staff Reporter The National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) National General Council (NGC) ,on Thursday 15 th February 2024, suspended three of its National Office Bearers (NOBs), two of whom are believed to be principal officers. Principal Officers number up to three in trade unions and are the President, General Secretary and the Treasurer. The suspension of two of them may therefore demonstrate the seriousness of the matter just barely six months since the current NOBS took office in August 2023. The suspension of the trio is reported to have come after it had been discovered that they were one way or another involved in alleged misappropriation of undisclosed NAPSAWU funds believed to amounting to more than one hundred thousand and seventy thousands (more than E170 000) emalangeni. The funds according to reliable sources are believed to have been approved funds for union activities but were later discovered to have been diverted into personal acco

Eswatini Labour Insight

Search This Blog