Labour federation Cosatu says it will give negotiations over government’s 0% wage increase a chance, an indication that unions are leaning towards hammering out a wage deal rather than take to the streets.
The parties hit a deadlock during wage negotiations at the public sector co-ordinating bargaining council (PSCBC) on Friday, when unions rejected the state’s formal offer of a 0% cost of living adjustment for the 2021/2022 financial year.
Mugwena Maluleke, the chief negotiator for Cosatu’s public service unions, said the parties needed to find each other as “a strike is not an end in itself”.
“For now, we have declared a deadlock which will be followed by a dispute,” Maluleke said on Tuesday. “The process of conciliation may take 21 days maximum but might be shorter if the parties come closer to each other.”
If the conciliation processes does not yield results, they will apply for a certificate of non-resolution and serve a 14-day strike notice to the employer thereafter, he said.
Public service & administration minister Senzo Mchunu told Business Day on Tuesday that the government was working “very hard” to break the deadlock as a strike would not be in the best interests of the country.
“We have to find alternatives [to the impasse]. We have to discuss because when government says it doesn’t have money, it’s true it doesn’t have money. Whether that is believed or not, the fact is: we don’t have money.”
Mchunu called on unions to stop saying they “reject” the proposal and instead engage on the alternatives and the way forward. He said it would be in the best interests of SA for parties to find each other on the matter.
Cosatu and the Public Servants Association (PSA) have said they will embark on strikes to bring the public service to a standstill if the government does not accede to their demands.
The unions, which have already taken the government to court for defying earlier agreements, are demanding a wage increase of the consumer price index (CPI) plus 4% across the board for 2021/2022 — above the 3.2% inflation rate recorded in March and also higher than the 4.3% average the Reserve Bank expects for 2021.
“We strongly believe that our demands are reasonable, affordable, achievable and we are therefore committed to defend them in any form available to the workers,” said Maluleke.
“We are fully committed to this process of negotiations and we will only go back to the table should the employer come with a revised offer. We will be consulting with our members on the next possible step while we follow the set process in the PSCBC to resolve the impasse.”
PSA assistant GM Reuben Maleka said the PSA expected the government to table a revised offer and that in the event the conciliation process failed, “we are going to embark on a strike”.
National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) general secretary Zola Saphetha said his union continues to hold a strong view that “a war” between government and public servants was unavoidable and the two were about to “butt heads”.
“Government has proven beyond reasonable doubt that they have no appetite to resolve the current impasse amicably and as Nehawu, we believe that our solution moving forward is to mobilise all our members for a full-blown strike which will render the government ungovernable and unfortunately pause all service delivery in the public service,” Saphetha said.
In February 2020, finance minister Tito Mboweni announced deep cuts to the public sector wage bill over the next three years — a decision the unions described as a “declaration of war”.
In December 2020, the Treasury, which is seeking to contain spending, won a court case after its decision not to implement the last part of a three-year agreement — which would have cost R38bn — angered unions.
The public service unions have appealed against the labour court of appeal ruling that the government did not have to implement a wage agreement which it does not have the money to pay for. The matter is scheduled to be heard at the Constitutional Court on August 24.
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