By Musa Mdluli

MBABANE:Phila Buthelezi,the Minister of Labour and Social Security has announced a ten percent(10%) salary increment for textile workers.

This comes after the various Wages Councils met to discuss salary adjustments, Wages Councils include workers representatives and employers.

In a public statement released on Monday, the Labour Minister stated that, the salary increment comes subsequent to the engagements of the various Wages Councils.

“There are currently eighteen (18) Wages Councils that have been appointed by the Ministry in terms of Section 6 of the Wages Act which says the Minister may establish a Wages Council to perform,in relation to the employees specified in the order and their employers, the functions specified in the Wages Act in any case in which he is satisfied that no adequate machinery exists for the effective regulation of the wages or conditions of employment of those employees, or that existing machinery is likely to cease to exist or be adequate for that purpose, and that it is expedient that such a Council be established”, said the Labour and Security Minister.

The textile, being one of the largest industries in country that employed over thirty thousand(30000) emaSwati, has been categorized into three(3) and this include the Small and Medium Enterprise(SMEs) with 7.39%, Cut,Make and Trim(CMT) at 10% across the board and the Free on Board(FOB) at 12%.

Other industries whose employees received a salary increment include the Micro-money lenders(10%), Pre-school and Day Care(6%%),Agricultural Industry(7.75%), Security Guards(5.5%) Schools Support Staff(8%) and Manufacturing and Handcrafts whose employees received up to 10.5% salary increment.

The Building and Construction had it’s employees receiving 10% salary increment, Domestic Workers(7%), Hotel and Catering(5%) Mining and Quarrying(up to 17.9%) Salons(8.25%), Motor Engineering(6.6%), Funeral Undertakers(20%) and Transport Industry(6.7%) among others.