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
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2016/02/tension-over-swazi-pay-protest.html
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