In a move that takes it a step closer to a strike by more than 200,000 public servants and threatens to test the state’s pledge to rebalance public finances, the Public Servants Association (PSA) has lodged a dispute with the government after wage negotiations stalled.
The declaration of the dispute kicks the talks to the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) for mediation. It came after the PSA rejected the sweetened offer of 2%, which is being reported here for the first time and was tabled last week. The union wants an inflation-beating 10% increase across the board.
If conciliation and mediation under the labour dispute resolution body for the public sector fail to break the deadlock after 30 days, tens of thousands of PSA members, who include teachers, nurses and police officers, could down tools, said PSA GM Reuben Maleka.
“If parties fail to find each other, we will be given a certificate of nonresolution, paving the way for a strike,” he said.
No date has been set for the conciliation and mediation process, said Oomang Parag, spokesperson for the PSCBC, adding that the parties will meet next week.
The PSA’s stance reflects the broader discontent of workers emboldened by the steeply rising cost of living. Last week, Eskom caved in to an “unaffordable” 7% increase, while the SA Revenue Service shut down some of its branches on Tuesday after its employees downed tools to support their double-digit wage demands.
The union’s posture also threatens to again put to the test the pledge by finance minister Enoch Godongwana to keep government spending under control after growth in remuneration over the past decade far outpaced inflation and GDP growth.
In May, the employer rejected almost all of labour’s demands for a 10% pay hike and instead proposed the extension of the R1,000 after-tax cash gratuity to more than 1.3-million employees and a 1.5% pay progression hike, which is linked to years of service and is always pencilled into the budget.
The offer, which unions rejected, was in line with the government’s budgetary commitments to restrict growth in the R665bn public sector wage bill, which eats up more than one-third of its spending, to an average annual rate of 1.8%.
The extension of the after-tax gratuity could be covered by the R20.5bn already in the 2022/ 2023 budget.
In a statement, Maleka said the employer’s revised 2% offer, which is below the 5.9% headline inflation rate the SA Reserve Bank has forecast for 2022, is “offensive to employees” who have not received increases for the past three years.
The offer is below the 3% pay hike, backdated to April 2021, for ministers and their deputies, premiers, MECs, MPs, MPLs, traditional leaders and judges.
Maleka said the new offer is not aligned with reality and criticised the government for pleading poverty when public servants demand higher wages.
The PSA was among public service unions, including the SA Democratic Teachers Union, that took the government to the Constitutional Court to challenge the ruling by the labour appeal court in 2020, upholding a Treasury decision not to implement the final part of a three-year public sector wage deal reached in the PSCBC in 2018 because of a lack of money.
That ruling, plus a groundbreaking agreement signed in March between the unions and the department of public service & administration, means any future wage deal between labour and the department would need the National Treasury’s sign-off.
Update: July 12 2022
This story has been updated with additional information.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.