Saturday, September 16, 2017

PUBLIC SERVANTS TO MARCH FOR MORE PAY



Public servants in Swaziland are to march and petition the government on Wednesday (20 September 2017) as part of a campaign for a cost of living salary adjustment.
 
They want a 9.15 percent increase, but the Swazi Government has offered them zero.

Unions who are set to participate in the march to the Ministry of Public Service are the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Swaziland Nurses Association, National Public Services and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) and the Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP). 

The decision comes after negotiations between government and unions reached deadlock on Wednesday (13 September 2017).

In January 2017, public servants said they wanted a minimum 70 percent pay increase and they were prepared to take to the streets to achieve it. They have been at loggerheads with the Swazi Government for years over pay and conditions. Many international groups such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) say Swaziland already devotes too much of its overall public spending to public servant salaries.

In 2016, the Voice of America reported public sector workers in Swaziland had called for increased pay for the past 10 years. The government had often said the global economic downturn had made it difficult to meet these demands.

In 2016, public servants received a 17 percent increase. Members of Parliament got a 32 percent increase in salaries.

In September 2016, the Times of Swaziland reported that the Swazi Government had been exposed making ‘empty promises’ to the IMF that it would control public spending. The Government, which is hand-picked by King Mswati III, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, had promised only to increase public sector salaries in line with the cost of living. Instead salaries rose 17 percent adding an estimated E300 million (US$22.14 million) to government spending.

See also

SWAZI POLICE HALT PAY PROTEST

SWAZI UNIONS STRIKE FOR MORE PAY

TENSION OVER SWAZI PAY PROTEST

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