The government says service delivery won’t be disrupted when the Public Servants Association (PSA) and its sister unions down tools countrywide on Thursday.
The PSA, which represents more than 235,000 members, is affiliated to the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa). Assistant GM Reuben Maleka said the union would hold marches in the Eastern Cape, the Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, and the Free State, with a march to parliament planned for Cape Town.
“Our members are very eager to go on strike, they can’t wait for tomorrow [Thursday],” Maleka said. The one-day strike comes after public service and administration acting minister Thulas Nxesi unilaterally implemented the government’s final offer of a 3% pay increase as per the numbers contained in finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) on October 26.
Godongwana’s move was seen as a win for the government, which is trying to rein in the public sector wage bill to an average annual growth rate of 1.8%. At more than R660bn, staff costs account for over a third of government spending.
“As far as I am concerned, we have penciled in 3% and we have penciled [that] for the next few years as part of the carry through costs of that 3%. Whether there will be an agreement above that, I can’t say, but I doubt [it],” Godongwana told Business Day on Tuesday.
“There’s no money, that’s all I know.”
“The action PSA wants to take is limited to lunchtime and tea-break; any work stoppage will be unlawful and the principle of no work no pay will apply, so we don’t envisage any service delivery disruptions [as] only members of the PSA are allowed to picket,” said department of public service & administration (DPSA) spokesperson Moses Mushi.
“It’s a normal working day. We’re not expecting service delivery disruptions ... we expect public servants to be at their work stations during working hours.”
Maleka, though, insisted the industrial action would have a “huge impact” on the government’s service delivery efforts as the “ports of entry won’t be operational”, among other services, on Thursday.
“We have been getting calls from teachers asking if they could participate in the strike, and we said, ’Yeah’, because it’s their right to strike. So, we expect a huge number of public servants to participate,” Maleka said.
The PSA said in a statement: “The strike will have a serious impact on activities of departments, especially home affairs, transport, and border control.
“This will be the first major public-service strike since 2010 ... public servants, like other employees and taxpayers, are feeling the severe effects of major price increases for fuel, transport and food, as well as interest rate hikes.”
The PSA and other public service unions aligned with Cosatu initially demanded a 10% wage increase at the start of negotiations in May, but lowered the figure to 6.5% in line with the headline inflation rate forecast by the Reserve Bank for 2022.
When Nxesi announced he would implement the 3% offer, which includes a R1,000 after-tax cash gratuity that ends in March 2023, the Cosatu-aligned unions reverted to their 10% demand.
Business Day has seen a government note, marked urgent, stating that the 3% increase was “scheduled for the supplementary salary run of Monday, November 14 2022 to be in the bank accounts on Thursday, November 17 2022”.
The National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA (Naptosa), in an update to its members, which Business Day has seen, said the 3% increase would reflect on public servants’ bank accounts on November 17 and would be backdated to April 1, “as well as the 1.5% pay progression backdated to July 1”.
Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) general secretary Frikkie de Bruin said in a statement: “To date, we have received a strike notice only from the PSA. The PSA commenced with workplace picketing as per the picketing rules issued that will culminate in a one-day strike action planned for November 10 2022.
“The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa), the Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of SA (Hospersa) and the SA Policing Union (Sapu) have all been afforded certificates of non-resolution.”
De Bruin said these unions would have the right to issue a seven-day notice to the PSCBC to commence with strike action “when and if they decided to do the same”.
“The PSCBC remains optimistic and is engaging with the parties encouraging them to revert to the facilitation process to attempt to seek a resolution to the impasse. The solution can be found only through social dialogue,” he added.
With Thando Maeko
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