The Public Servants Association (PSA), which represents more than 235,000 public servants, is to serve the government on Monday with a seven-day strike notice over its demand for above-inflation wage increases.
This comes after the PSA rejected the final 3% pay rise offer, which the government is considering implementing unilaterally before the medium-term budget policy statement.
Acting public service & administration minister Thulas Nxesi told the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) in a letter on October 17 that he was contemplating implementing the 3% to reduce uncertainty about the fiscal outlook because time was running out before the budget policy statement to be delivered on Wednesday by finance minister Enoch Godongwana.
Section 5(5)(b) of the Public Service Act empowers Nxesi to unilaterally implement the final offer on condition that any such offer does not reduce existing pay or other service benefits.
Invoking the clause will enable Godongwana to provide certainty on the direction of the R665bn public sector wage bill, the containment of which underpins the credibility of his promises on fiscal policy. The wage bill takes up more than a third of government spending.
Bargaining council spokesperson Oomang Parag said it had received “no update”.
PSA national manager Claude Naicker said that Nxesi’s letter to PSCBC general secretary Frikkie de Bruin, which Business Day has seen, “angered workers.
“They are now more determined than ever to embark on a strike. We were surprised by Nxesi’s letter to the bargaining council that they will implement the offer unilaterally,” he said.
“That has stoked the fires and leaves us with no choice but to fight back because this sets the tone on how future wage negotiations will be handled. This has a huge impact on bargaining, so on Monday we are going to serve the employer with a seven-day strike notice.”
He said industrial action would disrupt departments such as home affairs, because immigration officials would be among those who would down tools.
“All government departments will be affected: labour, home affairs, police clerks.”
The PSA’s move comes after recent industrial action that disrupted operations at rail and ports operator Transnet, where unions and the employer settled on a 6% rise for 2022, 5.5% in 2023 and 6% the next year.
Labour analyst Michael Bagraim accused the government of negotiating in bad faith with the unions, saying it “first decided how much [it] can afford in wage increases, agree on that, and then pretend to negotiate with the unions.
“They have been doing that for over 10 years now.”
He said unions no longer trusted the government after it refused to implement the last leg of a three-year pay deal signed in the PSCBC in 2018.
Bagraim said there would be a public service strike “unless the government gives in to their demand for a 6.5% wage increase. The strike will be absolutely horrific. The more dangerous it is [to the country], the quicker the government pays them. The message is a clear one to the unions: first fight, then we will give you what you need.”
Rejecting demands
Unions demanded a 10% rise when negotiations began in May, but went down to 6.5%. The government opened the talks by proposing a freeze on pay rises before gradually revising the figure upwards with offers of 1.5%, 2% and then 3%, including the 1.5% automatic pay progression and continuation of the R1,000-a-month after-tax cash gratuity, which will end in March 2023.
Three teachers’ unions — including the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union, an affiliate of Cosatu — have accepted the offer. Other large Cosatu unions, including the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union and the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA, rejected the offer and declared a dispute at the PSCBC. The matter is set for conciliation from October 31 to November 1.
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