South Africa’s public sector staff, who await the federal government’s response to their record of demands this week, have vowed to intensify strike action ought to the state revert with an unfavourable response.
Labour unions are demanding wage will increase of 10% and handed over a memorandum of demands to Public Service and Administration Minister Thulas Nxesi at a protest staged exterior the workplaces of National Treasury in Pretoria final week Tuesday.
The unions gave authorities seven days to reply to their demands and current a greater supply than the three% baseline and 4.5% non-pensionable will increase which the state has unilaterally carried out.
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Public sector staff name on authorities to return to negotiating desk
Govt ‘hikes’ wage supply to 7.5%, public wage invoice might balloon to R700bn
“If government fails to respond, we are going to take the battle to them,” National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) nationwide spokesperson Lwazi Nkolonzi advised Moneyweb on Monday.
He stated the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), the Federation of Unions SA (Fedusa), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and Nehawu will meet on Tuesday morning to debate the subsequent plan of action.
“If the government doesn’t bring a positive response to our demands, there’s going to be a serious fight and struggle that we’ll be launching,” stated Nkolonzi.
“Workers are not going to take this lying down, they are going to fight, rest assured. Up until they are offered a better offer than what the government has unilaterally implemented,” he added.
Read: Public sector wage talks depart Ramaphosa in tight spot
Nationwide stayaways
Speaking to Moneyweb on Monday, Public Servants Association (PSA) nationwide supervisor Claude Naicker stated its staff will proceed to stage pickets from Tuesday, adopted by nationwide stayaways that can happen on completely different dates.
“We’ll start our plan of action on Tuesday, going forward in all the provinces. We’ve earmarked a specific date for [stayaways and protests] in each province,” stated Naicker.
Meanwhile, Department of Public Service and Administration spokesman Moses Mushi has stated negotiations for the 2023/2024 monetary 12 months have to start earlier than the subsequent finances vote subsequent 12 months.
“We are saying that the current negotiations need to be concluded, and we need to do that with the bargaining council so that we can finalise the current wage negotiations, and then look at the next round, that we try and finalise it before the next budget vote,” stated Mushi.
In its argument, the federal government has stated the three% baseline enhance and 4.5% non-pensionable money gratuity cost that can final till March subsequent 12 months successfully interprets to a 7.5% enhance – a wage enhance construction unions have outright rejected, calling it “sneaky”.
Common observe
But that’s widespread observe, Hugo Pienaar, director in employment regulation at regulation agency Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, tells Moneyweb.
“It’s not uncommon for companies to do that, and why they do it is because future increases would depend on the current basic increase,” he explains.
“If there’s a 3% [increase] within the pensionable, and a 4.5% on the stability, the three% will endlessly be there to the advantage of the workers … However, the 4.5%, not essentially so. That’s about negotiations, and it [government] is making an attempt to make it engaging to the workers.
“Ultimately, the government’s affordability levels play a huge role.”
If the federal government’s supply is carried out based on the 7.5% enhance, the general public service wage invoice would rocket to just about R700 billion. If the ten% hike demanded by unions is met by authorities, that will add R49 billion to the state’s wage invoice, which might see the full public wage invoice spiral even greater to R714 billion.
Previously, Nxesi and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana stated the 7.5% enhance is along with a 1.5% pay development that’s payable to all qualifying staff. This, they claimed, pushed the full package deal to a 9% enhance for some staff.