Public service & administration acting minister Thulas Nxesi on Tuesday gave the Treasury the “go ahead” to pencil the contentious final 3% wage offer for public servants into the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS).
Nxesi’s decision is viewed as enabling finance minister Enoch Godongwana to provide certainty on the direction of the R665bn public sector wage bill when he delivers the policy statement in parliament on Wednesday.
However, the decision could strain already tense relations between the government and labour, and possibly lead to a debilitating strike.
The Public Servants Association (PSA), which represents 235,000 public service employees, has criticised Nxesi for
displaying what it terms “sheer arrogance”.
“We condemn such conduct. We didn’t expect that to come from the government of the day — that they would unilaterally implement a wage offer. If they implement the 3%, then there is no point in continuing with the wage talks,” PSA assistant GM Reuben Maleka said on Tuesday. He said the minister’s arrogance was among the reasons its members elected to serve the government with a seven-day strike notice on Monday.
Cosatu, which represents the majority of the more than
1.3-million workers in the public service, is so far non-committal on how it will respond to the unilateral implementation of the 3% wage hike, saying it was still evaluating its options.
The labour federation’s chief negotiator, Simon Hlungwani, said Cosatu would reflect on Nxesi’s decision and “comment when ready”.
Relations between the government and unions soured after the state reneged on implementing the last leg of a three-year wage deal signed in 2018, citing a lack of funds.
Cosatu, a key ally of the ANC, has not taken kindly to this, which has led to protest marches and the booing of President Cyril Ramaphosa and one of his closest allies, mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe, on public stages in recent months.
Cosatu’s largest unions, including the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu), Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), and SA Municipal Workers Union, in September also demanded that the federation immediately dump the ANC and support the SACP during the national general election in 2024.
Public service unions have accused the government of negotiating in bad faith during the wage talks, which started in May, saying the employer was determined to hammer out a pay hike deal by “hook or crook”.
Nxesi wrote to the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) on October 17, indicating that he was contemplating unilaterally implementing the wage offer to reduce uncertainties around the fiscal outlook and to ensure public servants do not forfeit increases for a second year in
a row.
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.
Speaking during a media briefing on Tuesday, Nxesi said it was decided to factor in the 3% offer to the medium-term budget so that public servants do not lose out on increases for a
second year in a row. Three teachers’ unions have already accepted the wage offer.
He said implementing the offer did not signal the end of the wage talks as the department had requested the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and the PSCBC to assist further in breaking the wage impasse.
‘Negotiations’
“This is not the end of the negotiations as the CCMA and PSCBC have agreed to assist to break the wage impasse. The minister said if we don’t implement [the 3% offer], the money set aside for increases would be lost to other government programmes. Our approach is progressive because there are unions, teachers, who have accepted the wage offer, so we said let’s not throw the baby with the bath water,” said Nxesi’s spokesperson, Sabelo Mali.
Nxesi said the wage offer had to be secured ahead of the tabling of the medium-term budget policy statement as there would not be another opportunity to fund wage increases once it was tabled.
“It is therefore clear that to ensure public servants are not disadvantaged and to safeguard the fiscal health of the country, the draft agreement [on the 3% offer] has to be implemented” before the tabling of the 2022 medium-term budget, he said.
Three unions — the SA Democratic Teachers Union, an affiliate of Cosatu, SA Teachers Union, and National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA — have accepted the 3% offer.
Other large Cosatu unions, including Nehawu and Popcru, 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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