The SA Policing Union (Sapu), will ballot its more than 100,000 police, traffic and correctional services officials after the union was issued with a strike certificate by the public service co-ordinating bargaining council (PSCBC) Tuesday.
Sapu marched to the PSCBC offices in Centurion, Tshwane on Tuesday in protest at the government’s revised final offer of 3% for the country’s more than 1.3-million public servants. Sapu, which is affiliated to the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), is demanding an 8% wage increase. The SA Reserve Bank has forecast a headline inflation rate of 6.5% for 2022.
Workers across various sectors, including steel, manufacturing, energy and the automotive industry have been demanding inflation-beating increases to cope with the soaring cost of living.
Stats SA reported on Wednesday that inflation eased to 7.6% in August from 7.8% as lower fuel prices more than offset higher core, food and electricity inflation.
Sapu has become the second union, after the Public Servants Association (PSA) — which represents more than 235,000 government workers — to be issued with a strike certificate by the PSCBC.
The PSA, which received its certificate in August has already balloted members, but the outcome has been made known yet. GM Reuben Maleka could not be reached immediately for comment on the results.
PSCBC general secretary Frikkie de Bruin told Business Day: “We have issued certificates of non-resolution to Sapu and PSA. Sapu cannot go on strike as they work in an essential service.”
But Sapu national spokesperson Lesiba Thobakgale contradicted De Bruin, saying: “The law says police officers employed under the SA Police Service Act, who are on duty, cannot be pulled out to go on a strike. But employees who are off-duty can join us, and workers who are employed under the Public Service Act are allowed to strike.”
Thobakgale said the union would ballot members and develop picketing rules. “When we are done ... we will then announce the date for a strike, after giving the employer a notice as required by the Labour Relations Act,” he said.
The public service & administration department was expected to brief parliament on the pay talks on Wednesday, but the matter was skipped on the agenda with no explanation given.
On Tuesday, thousands of police, prisons and traffic officers who are members of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) marched to the Union Buildings to deliver a list of demands on better wages and working conditions.
They rejected the revised 3% offer, dismissing it as a “stipend”, which could not even afford them proper housing and basic necessities.
The unions initially demanded a 10% increase when talks began in May, but trimmed the figure down to 6.5% in an effort to avert a strike that could bring some government services to a halt and disrupt schooling, clinics and hospitals. During the march on Tuesday, Popcru leaders said the union is demanding 10%.
The final 3% offer, which the government tabled at the PSCBC on August 30, was viewed to be in line with the government’s commitments to slash the R665bn public service wage bill to an annual average increase of 1.8%. Pay for government workers accounts for more than a third of state spending.
In a statement on Wednesday The National Treasury said it “remains committed to ensuring an affordable wage bill for the public sector, given fiscal constraints and risks ... any wage costs that are beyond the means of the budget will have an impact on the headcounts in the state, and the ability of government to protect funding for other priorities”.
The state previously offered a 2% hike, citing a lack of funds, before hiking it to 3% to match the increase offered recently to ministers and their deputies, provincial premiers, MECs, MPs, MPLs, judges and traditional leaders.
Popcru president Zizamele Cebekhulu, addressing the protesters at the Union Buildings on Tuesday, said: “We are undermined all the time, [yet] we are told we are essential service workers. Today, I want to say that we will go on a strike.”
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