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AUSTERITY BITES WORKERS FURTHER AS UNESWA MOVES TO RETRENCH 136 WORKERS

 

UNESWA EMBLEM (sourced online)

Written by Fundizwi Sikhondze

The premier university in Eswatini ,the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) has been reported to have served letters indicating their intention to retrench around one hundred and thirty six (136) workers employed in the two departments, maintenance and the refectory (the dining hall) so that the departments can be outsourced to private operators. Sources within UNESWA have revealed to this publication that affected there are forty six (46) refectory workers and eighty six (86) maintenance department workers. The workers in both departments are engaged in either permanent and pensionable contracts or fixed term contracts.

The reason for this move appears to be the tough financial position UNESWA has been publicly revealed to be dealing with. 

UNESWA'S correspondences which this publication is in possession of and addressed to the affected permanent and pensionable workers stated that " The university in the past several years has experienced severe financial difficulties and this has caused the university to consider options to remedy this unfortunate situation. After exploring all options to keep the institution operational in all departments ,the university has come to the difficult decision to outsource the Refectory and Maintenance departments. Please note that NAWUSHI has been informed of this decision. All arrangements and engagements with you and relevant stakeholders shall be made in due course".

The correspondences directed to some workers who are on fixed term contracts stated that, "The Non Academic Staff Committee held on 18th September 2023 considered the status of your contract that is due to expire 31st March 2024. Having considered several factors ,the committee resolved that your contract will not be renewed when it expires on 31st March 2024".

The affected workers fall under the non academic category of the UNESWA workforce and this category of workers is organised and therefore represented by the National Workers Union is Swaziland Higher Institutions (NAWUSHI). Speaking to this publication on the issue the Secretary General of NAWUSHI Stanley Simelane expressed the union's dismay at the latest developments regarding the processes towards retrenching workers. This according the SG Stanley is because while UNESWA Management had passively informed them of these plans they had been blindsided by the  implementation of same prematurely because they had expected implementation to only take place after proper engagements in an official Joint Negotiations Forum between UNESWA and NAWUSHI. He said, "This is an unfortunate development since management mentioned this to us in passing and we told them to present this in the formal JNC meeting for full deliberations. Management then wrote (retrenchment) letters to workers while tsine sigadze (we were still anticipating) the JNC meeting".


EMBLEM OF NAWUSHI (sourced online)

It is worth noting that the financial challenges facing UNESWA have been in public domain for a number of years. They include, but not limited to, publicly confirmed stories of delays in salary payments to workers and delays in remitting of deducted funds from time to time.

The Registrar's office of UNESWA had not responded to a questionnaire sent to them by this publication at the time of compiling this story.

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