No Wage Councils have been held for three years to negotiate wages in the commercial, retail and wholesale sectors. There is also an enforcement problem, as grievance mechanisms such as the Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration Commission have been unable to enforce decisions given the backlog of cases before the Industrial Court.
The Industrial Relations Act (section 45) also promotes the establishment of Joint Negotiating Councils (JNC) to bargain over working conditions at the sectoral level. So far, only one JNC was established in the textile industry in 2005 between the Swaziland Textile Exporters Association (STEA) and the Swaziland Manufacturing and Allied Workers Union (SMAWU). But before an agreement could be reached, the STEA disbanded as a reaction to requests by the SMAWU to negotiate pay increases.