MANZINI:Phila Mtsetfwa,the Secretary General of the Swaziland Commercial and Allied Workers Union(SCAWU) has confirmed that, the Build it Matsapha-Manzini Management has agreed to employ workers permanently and as a result,their strike action has been cancelled.
This comes after the trade union made attempts to engage the Management on behalf of the workers, the legal strike action commenced on Friday and the agreement was subsequently reached on Sunday midnight.
Mtsetfwa said as the trade union, they followed all the due process of the law including approaching the Coalition,Mediation and Arbitration Commission(CMAC) before engaging in the legal strike action.
“We held a meeting on Sunday with the Build it Management after the employer made a better offer, we wanted the employer to immediately employ the casual workers permanently.In the midst of the negotiations that lasted until 12midnight, the employer agreed to employ the workers permanently. As a union, we are happy to announce that there would be no more short-term contracts because our main priority was job security. We also thank you as the media for reporting about such issues because the reporting creates awareness, the employer also agreed to increase the salaries with 4.5% to be backdated to January 2024.Another 4.5% will be awarded in August 2024 and be backdated to July 2024 and this means we managed to secure 9%”,said the SCAWU Secretary General when speaking to this Swaziland News on Monday.
The trade unionist then urged workers in the country to consider joining unions in order to protect their rights, he cited another issue at SPAR Mbabane saying workers rights were being violated there.

Build it workers during the strike action.