Negotiating team bitter with CSTU

The Government Negotiating Team (GNT) has faulted the Civil Service Trade Union (CSTU) for allegedly undermining its authority and rushing to the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) with a petition of their grievances.
The CSTU petition to OPC dated March 27 2014 gave government a seven-day ultimatum to address the seven points in the petition which included a mid-term salary review and resumption of funding to ministries and departments reduced as a result of the withdrawal of donor budgetary support.
But the petition has not gone down well with the GNT comprising the Department of Human Resource Management (DHRM), Treasury, Accountant General and others who have expressed disappointment at the action taken by the union.
Secretary for the GNT, who is also secretary for DHRM, Sam Madula, said in an interview yesterday the team would be reluctant to meet with the union leadership because their petition had come before the GNT had presented their grievances and recommendations to OPC.
“What this action [the petition] means is that GNT is irrelevant and the union should find a different channel to address their issues with government.  It should have been GNT writing to the Chief Secretary detailing our discussions with the union and our recommendations. But what they have done is to undermine our authority and we wasted government resources meeting them,” he said.
Madula hit at CSTU for not giving GNT a chance to negotiate on their behalf with government through the Chief Secretary implying that it was too late to change the situation.
But CSTU secretary general Madalitso Njolomole said the union opted to issue the petition seeking a quick response from the authorities.
“We are not undermining them. We recognise the authority they have over these negotiations. But we were receiving pressure from our members because most of the issues we put to the GNT were long standing and we wanted a quick response,” he said.
However, Njolomole added that even after the petition, it was the wish of the union that discussions with government continue.
The union also demanded that government should immediately negotiate with contractors who have abandoned government funded projects due to non-payment so that no tax-payers’ money is lost in compensation to the contractors.
CSTU also demanded a speedy review of the civil service remuneration procedures which the union said were oppressive and promoted a culture of elitism.

 
But in another development, CSTU’s petition could be null and void as, according to lawyer Christon Ghambi, there is an injunction stopping the current executive from carrying out its duties on the basis that it was illegally elected during an election that did not follow procedures.
Ghambi said the petition is invalid because it was signed by Servace Sakala, Madalitso Njolomole and Joseph Mdambo who were restrained by the court from performing duties as CSTU president, secretary general and treasurer  respectively.
He said: “They have no mandate to order government or subject it to any sanctions. What they are doing is illegal. They are not allowed in any way to carry business on behalf of CSTU.”
But Njolomole claimed the CSTU executive was under no restriction to conduct business on behalf of the civil servants arguing the case was dismissed in court.