NAPSAWU SCORE MAJOR VICTORY FOR 22 WORKERS FROM THE ICT AND MECHANISATION SECTIONS

NAPSAWU President Bawinile Ndlovu in a victory pose with Acting Secretary General Msimeto Malindzisa together with representatives of the Mechanisation and ICT workers (Picture credit: NAPSAWU Facebook page).

The National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) scored a major victory in their collective bargaining efforts when they reached an agreement with the Eswatini government ,through the Ministry of Public Service and Administration ,for the re-absorption of twenty two (22) workers from the computer services under Information and Communication Technology (ICT) ministry as well as the Mechanisation section of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Mechanisation workers were mainly those employed in roles such as tractor driving and maintenance and ICT workers were employed in the former computer section under the Ministry of ICT.

The dispute ,according to a NAPSAWU document prepared for Members of Parliament on the issue, emanated from a correspondence dated 24th March 2021 which informed the union of the decision to transfer the mandate of the mechanisation from the Ministry of Agriculture to the National Maize Corporation (NMC). In the aftermath NAPSAWU then approached the Industrial Court to challenge the decision arguing that the Eswatini Government had failed to adhere to Section 40 (2) (b) and (c) of the Employment Act (1980) in that they chose to engage directly with the affected employees and in the process bypassed the union on their transfer to NMC and RSTP respectively. On 27th April 2022 the court ruled in favour of NAPSAWU.

In the Parliamentary paper NAPSAWU further cited that the Eswatini Government had treated at least three officers who happened to be the only females  the grouping better by transferring them to other government ministries. Two of them were  transferred to Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development and one to the Ministry of Education and Training.

At the time of settlement of the matter around 22 workers, 2 from ICT and 20 from Mechanisation remained.

Pictured: Representatives of Mechanisation and ICT Comrades sitting with NAPSAWU President Bawinile Ndlovu (Picture credit: NAPSAWU Facebook Page)

The collective agreement entered into on 23rd July 2025  on section 3.1 states, "All the remaining employees from the abolishment of the Mechanisation Department in the Ministry of Agriculture and the Computer Services Department in the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) ,should be reengaged to comparable or identical work to that which the employees were engaged in before the purported termination of their services were engaged in before the purported termination of their services or to other reasonable suitable work or employment within the civil services". the remaining workers 

The agreement on section 3.3 the government undertook to conduct ,logistical and consultations as to the exact posting of the comrades within three weeks of the agreement. Then on section 3.4 issues relating to compensation and payments were raised thus, "the parties shall continue with negotiations with regards to any compensation as may be reasonable and due to the remaining employees recruitment to their purported termination in the civil service".