A study of factors contributing to labour litigation against the Swaziland government

Abstract

The Swaziland Government is experiencing employee litigation resulting in financial and staff time costs. The study found that several underlying factors contribute to labour litigation against the Swaziland Government, including the poor qualifications of managers. The Swaziland Government is a public organisation with an objective of providing public goods and services, of which service delivery is the most crucial indicator for the successful implementation of public policy. The policy is implemented by qualified officers, working under enabling procedures and regulations. Organisational procedures are designed to establish organisational justice, predictability and order. Deliberate or erroneous disregard of procedure results in the perception of organisational injustice, driving employees to litigate. Effective administrators conduct business within the law, and in terms of ethical behaviour. Some managers and administrators acquire their positions not on merit, but due to political connection, which presents as discrimination, resulting in employee litigations. Due to procedural and legal barriers, the Government is not able to deal with litigation cases as quickly and effectively as can the private sector. By means of qualitative analysis, the study found that, to avoid employee litigation, the Swaziland Government should establish administration and management recruitment and promotion policies that are based on equity principles, enforce current procedures and regulation of the human resource function to reduce the amount of litigation, and design effective orientation and induction training to inculcate new set of attitudes and values among the public administrators and managers to ensure professional conduct of their duties, in a manner that does not lead to employee litigation. The findings of the study are important for the development of guidelines for the public administrators and managers in dealing with human resources issues. The designing of training content for the administration and management cadre is critical in mitigating incidences of employee ligation, with it eventually coming to save the Government from financial wastage.