In a move that could give the National Treasury more say on future pay agreements for public servants, the government will have to produce a certificate of compliance with the department’s regulations before entering into deals with unions.
This development was part of an agreement hammered out by the unions and the government at the four-day public service co-ordinating bargaining council (PSCBC) summit on collective bargaining, held at Emperors Palace, east of Johannesburg.
“The way I see this, I think civil servants will be forced to follow the budget set by the finance minister,” said Efficient Group economist Dawie Roodt. “The Treasury could simply say, ‘we have budgeted 1.8% [increase for wages] anything above that would be unaffordable’. I will call this a win for government, a taxpayer would be more appropriate.”
The outcome from the public service summit follows the protracted legal battle between the government and public sector unions after the government pulled out of a three-year pay agreement it signed with worker representatives, citing lack of funds.
In a ground-breaking Constitutional Court judgment in February, acting justice Mjabuliseni Isaac Madondo ruled that the government could back out of an “impugned wage deal” the state entered into with unions at the PSCBC in 2018.
Madondo found that the government does not have to implement the last leg of the three-year agreement as the unions were “unjustifiably enriched” from the “impugned collective agreement”.
At the heart of the dispute was the government’s argument that the pay deal was unlawful as government negotiators entered into the agreement with the unions without checking if the Treasury had enough in its purse to honour the agreement, as required by law.
While the government welcomed Madondo’s ruling, Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said that it would probably cause “labour instability in the public service because workers will never accept a multiyear agreement again”.
Speaking to Business Day after the declaration was adopted on Thursday, public service & administration minister Ayanda Dlodlo spoke in favour of the certificate of compliance in future pay talks. “It does not put us in a corner. What it actually does is to ensure that all processes are legally and properly done.” The certificate would ensure that all “loopholes are closed”.
“It’s a quality control mechanism. This summit has proved to us that if we work together we will come out strongly,” Dlodlo said.
While Cosatu’s public service unions such as the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) attended the summit, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) pulled out, saying that the summit was at best aimed at “pre-determining an outcome in favour of the employer by using unions to endorse its posture of not giving public servants an increment for the coming three years”.
Dlodlo said Popcru’s withdrawal was unfortunate, but emphasised that the government had “robust discussions” with unions that remained. The summit was not a talk shop, she said. The summit had resulted in a “stronger relationship” between labour and the employer.
In the declaration, read by PSCBC general secretary Frikkie de Bruin, the parties agreed to develop mechanisms to develop and strengthen collective bargaining. They said they were not opposed to government reconfiguration that would result in job security, improved conditions of work, and service delivery to citizens.
The declaration called on the PSCBC to establish a task team to audit all collective agreements since 2010 to “identity areas of nonimplementation and agree on a clear process for implementation of outstanding areas linked to time frame”.
Workers needed to be upskilled and reskilled on the fourth industrial revolution to “remain relevant”.
De Bruin said: “We are excited that everybody was involved in final discussion of the document. The [bargaining] council will still have a chance to talk to the document before it is implemented.”
Mike Shingange, Cosatu’s first deputy president and Nehawu president, said: “We support the declaration, we further propose that the first meeting of the bargaining council must develop a clear road map for an implementation plan immediately.”
Dlodlo said the summit was aimed at improving the public service. “This has been one of the most successful summits of [the PSCBC] that I have ever attended.”
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