Electricity workers in Swaziland won their dispute
over unpaid pay bonuses after striking for fewer than two days.
Swaziland
Electricity Company (SEC) workers are expected to be paid within days. The
bonuses had been owed from the past two financial years.
The
strike by members of the Swaziland Electricity Supply Maintenance and Allied
Workers Union (SESMAWU) started on Monday (8 November 2017). There were
widespread electricity blackouts across the kingdom.
Workers defied
an Industrial Court order not to strike. The court ruled strike action
illegal because SEC employees were deemed to be essential workers.
The
strike went ahead despite leaders of SESMAWU asking them to call it off or be
in contempt of the court.
Swaziland Electricity
Company (SEC) workers in the Swaziland Electricity Supply Maintenance and
Allied Workers Union (SESMAWU) are complaining that bonuses owed over the past
two years are unpaid.
The strike took place
without the backing of the SESMAWU leadership. It started at 9 am and reportedly
ended at about 3pm.
The SEC is a parastatal
that is controlled by the government of King Mswati III who rules Swaziland as
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
The Swazi Government has halted all bonus payments
in about 50 public enterprises, including the University of Swaziland (UNISWA),
Swaziland Railway, Public Service Pension Fund (PSPF), Swaziland Electricity
Company (SEC) and Swaziland Water Services Corporation (SWSC).
Nurses
and support staff at a major hospital in Swaziland walked
off work on Wednesday (26 October 2016) because they had not been paid.
It
happened at Good Shepherd Hospital in Siteki.
Management
blamed the Swazi Government which had not passed on money for salaries.
Nurses
and support staff resolved to stay away from wards pending payment. Senior
staff, supervisors and doctors had to take care of patients. Last month (September
2016), salaries were also delayed and the workers were paid after taking
similar strike action.
Nurses in Swaziland gave the Government a seven-day
strike ultimatum on Wednesday (19 October 2016) as they protested for more jobs
to be created.
The Swaziland
Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) said there was about one nurse for every
1,000 people in Swaziland when the World Health Organisation recommended the
figure should be five.
SWADU
delivered a petition to the Prime Minister’s Office. SWADNU President Bheki
Mamba told local media that if government did not respond to the demands the
association would shut down hospitals and clinics.
The Times of Swaziland reported Mamba saying there was a gross shortage
of nurses in the country and the nurses had to put up with long hours.
The petition read in part, ‘On shortage of nurses, the
government of Swaziland must improve the number of skilled nurses from the
1:1000 ratio to at least 5:1000 as per the recommendation of the World Health
Organisation.
‘Government
must immediately create posts for nurses to curb the shortage in the medium
run. It should also reduce the vacancy rate of the established posts to zero by
employing all nurses who have just qualified as we are of the view that there
are no supplies constrains in nursing in the country.’
Last week,
Environmental
health officers in Swaziland threatened to strike if they did not get a
salary review and increased overtime payments.
But an attack the Swazi police made on striking security guards yesterday (1 December 2009) shows what a lie this is.
One guard was shot in the head with a rubber bullet and five people in total were injured when police opened fire on striking security guards in Swaziland’s capital Mbabane.
Police also used teargas on the strikers.
The Swazi Observer,the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III,sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported police fired teargas to ‘calm’ the strikers.
The striking workers were demanding a meeting with their bosses to put forward a wage claim to increase their pay in line with inflation.
Unlike the police and Swaziland’s MPs who recently received large salary increases,security guards are poorly paid. Their bosses say the security workers are getting the minimum amount they are required to pay by Swazi government regulations.
According to a spokesman for the Swaziland Amalgamated Trade Union (SATU), the bosses ‘arrogantly told us they have the money to pay three times what we are asking for’, but will stick to the government’s minimum wage figure.
According to the union, the police were defending the employer Fidelity Security Services which had hired casual employees to take over from the striking workers and was attempting to smuggle them into the company premises.
‘Our members got angry to when they heard such. Our members want [to] block the casual staffers from entering the premises – something which resulted in the confrontation with the police who tried to drive our members away from the company gate.’
Armed police stood by as 800 Swazi textile workers were fired from their jobs because they went on strike.
The total workforce at Juries Manufacturing Company in Nhlangano, Swaziland, were fired because they had been on strike for three days protesting that they wanted holiday pay due to them, pension provisions and their jobs to be made permanent. They also said that workers with the HIV virus were not allowed to take their ARV medicine while working.
The company has advertised all the jobs.
The workers’ trade union, the Swaziland Manufacturing and Allied Workers (SMAWU) say the company has not negotiated with them, even though they are required to do so by law.
Swaziland police have once again fired rubber bullets and teargas at women textile workers demanding their rights.
This time the police attacked workers at Zheng Yong Garment Factory who were demanding that they be paid holiday money they said was rightfully owed to them.
The Swazi Observer reports today (26 September 2008) that workers were locked out of the factory yesterday. When they arrived for work they found gates locked and a notice saying the company would remain closed with immediate effect.
The Observer said up to 3,000 angry workers chanted political songs until the police arrived.
According to the Observer, ‘Police arrived and advised them to leave but they refused. After a second warning still the workers refuse to leave the area. Police then fired teargas canisters. All hell broke loose.’
The Observer adds, ‘When the workers reiterated the police called for reinforcements.
‘It was then that the workers went into the other nearby factories, FTM Garment and HOs Enterprise where they forced the other workers out.’
Police chased the workers into a nearby forest.
The Times of Swaziland reports today that there is a long running dispute between workers and management over unpaid holiday pay. The Swazi courts are presently deliberating on the case. Workers had embarked on a sit-in protest earlier this week.
This is not the first time police have attacked textile workers with teargas and rubber bullets. In March 2008 police provoked running battles with workers who were legally striking against the poverty wages they are paid by the textile companies, most of which are owned by Taiwanese businesses.
The trade union group COSATU is to stage a border blockade of Swaziland to protest against the undemocratic election taking place in the kingdom next week (September 2008).
The Congress of South African Trade Unions announced this week that it wants ‘to bring to a total stop the tendency by Swaziland's royal family regime to get away with conducting undemocratic and illegitimate elections, yet still be accepted as a legitimate government’.
The election will be held even though political parties are banned and the parliament that is elected has no real power. The Prime Minister and many cabinet ministers are selected by King Mswati III. The present Prime Minister of Swaziland, Themba Dlamini was selected by the King, even though Dlamini had not been elected to Parliament.
COSATU says the present ruling regime in Swaziland has ‘instituted a perpetual state of emergency and criminalised all forms of political activity, including marches and demonstrations. It has also denied the people their rights to organise, associate and speak freely.’
COSATU is organising a blockade on18 September 2008 at the South Africa/Swaziland border.
Last week, a two day strike and demonstrations brought international attention to the lack of democracy in Swaziland. Police used tear gas and rubber bullets against demonstrators.
COSATU says, ‘The state resorted to its usual language of violence and more violence against peaceful marchers. Amnesty International has on several occasions condemned the Swazi regime for torture, violence and brutality against political activists, which has seen many of them being forced into exile.’
Last weekend the 40/40 celebrations to mark both the 40th birthday of the King and the 40th anniversary of Swaziland’s independence from Britain were widely condemned in the international community for their lavishness. It is impossible to calculate the cost of the 40/40 celebrations but some estimates put it as high as E70 million (7 million US dollars).
COSATU says, ‘Greed and corruption have become endemic in Swaziland, with the royal family having unlimited access to national resources in the name of Swazi culture and tradition. Lack of accountability breeds corruption and cancerous greed, hence the massive, legalised looting of the economy by the ruling elite, buying expensive goods, living extravagant lifestyles and splashing the country's wealth around in shows of might and display of royal power, including buying allegiance and patronage.’
