While pundits say attacks on collective bargaining do not signal the end of the system that has been part of SA’s labour regime for decades, experts have expressed concern over government’s continued intransigence that risks splitting the governing tripartite alliance down the middle.
Worker frustration with the government became more pronounced after it abandoned union representatives in the bargaining council and rushed to court, arguing it could not implement the last leg of a three-year wage deal signed in 2018, citing a lack of funds.
When the Constitutional Court ruled in February in favour of the government, the proverbial line in the sand was drawn. Not only did this result in President Cyril Ramaphosa being booed and prevented from addressing a Workers’ Day rally organised by Cosatu in May, but the same fate befell his trusted lieutenant and ANC national chair Gwede Mantashe. The mineral resources & energy minister was subjected to the same treatment during the Cosatu national congress in Midrand in September.
Public service & administration acting minister Thulas Nxesi was booed and prevented from addressing disgruntled public servants — from unions affiliated to labour federations Cosatu, Saftu and Fedusa — who marched to the National Treasury in the Tshwane CBD last week, in support of their demands for a 10% pay increase.
Nxesi had to duck for cover as objects were thrown at him. He was ridiculed after he unilaterally implemented the government’s final, revised 3% offer, as per figures in the medium-term budget policy statement delivered by finance minister Enoch Godongwana on October 26.
The animosity towards the governing ANC, especially from Cosatu, its key ally that has supported the former liberation movement during elections since 1994, can only getworse.
This became more pronounced during the recent Cosatu congress when the labour federation’s largest affiliates, including the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu), Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) and SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) called on Cosatu to dump the ANC and support the SACP during the provincial and national elections in 2024, in which the ANC’s support is expected to dip below 50%, according to several surveys.
The matter was put to a vote, and Cosatu is yet to announce the results. Whatever the outcome, the horse has already bolted, and I do not see any of these unions (Nehawu, Popcru, Denosa, Samwu) voting to retain the ANC if the elections are held now, given their hardened stance against their employer.
The SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) and two other teachers’ unions were not part of the march to Treasury on November 22, having accepted government’s 3% offer. But this elicited anger from Sadtu’s sister unions in Cosatu, who were not happy with the union breaking ranks with the federation’s public service unions.
The animosity against Sadtu was palpable during the march to Tshwane, with demonstrators holding placards with messages such as “Give 3% to Sadtu” and “We demand more than 3%”.
What is clear is that unions seen as sympathetic to the government’s excuse of being broke, will continue to be isolated and painted as selling out workers. The writer received several emails after Sadtu accepted the 3% offer, with the authors claiming that they had not given the union’s leadership a mandate to accept the deal.
Several unions spoken to off the record said Sadtu could have driven the “intransigent” government back to the public service co-ordinating bargaining council, had its leadership threatened the employer that teachers would not oversee the 2022 end of year final examinations, including for Grade 12s.
Aggrieved
They feel aggrieved by the apparent lack of this bargaining chip in Sadtu’s arsenal of weapons to deal with the employer.
Denosa president and convener of Cosatu’s joint mandating committee, Simon Hlungwani, has argued that it doesn’t sound right for government to say it is broke, while there is always money for corruption.
The government is trying to rein in the public sector pay bill — now at more than R660bn a year — to an average annual increase of 1.8%. But union leaders have long argued they should not be made scapegoats for government’s inefficiency in dealing with the scourge of corruption eating away at the national kitty.
They have now threatened indefinite strike action from December, if government doesn’t respond favourably to their demands of November 22 within seven days.
Despite the bad blood between the government and the labour movement, Cosatu general secretary Solly Phetoe does not think this is the end of collective bargaining.
“We don’t think the attacks on collective bargain mean the end of collective bargaining as we know it. But we need to fight against such attacks,” he said.
He expressed concern that some private sector employers were now emulating government in their refusal to implement staging wage deals.
“These are the trends we are seeing, but we won’t stop fighting for the defence of collective bargaining,” Phetoe said. In in the new year, labour will push for amendments to the Labour Relations Act to give it teeth in dealing with errant employers who do not comply with standing wage deals reached in the bargaining councils.
“We are going to report them [the government] to the International Labour Organisation for disrespecting collective bargaining. So, these are some of the issues we will be taking up and following closely in the New Year,” Phetoe said.
Labour analyst Michael Bagraim, the DA deputy employment & labour spokesperson, said while the developments in the labour sector do not signal an end to collective bargaining, it is unfortunate that parties have become more reliant on courts and the judiciary to intervene in disputes.
“We need to protect collective bargaining and rebuild trust between the union movement and employers. Also in the private sector the trust relationship is breaking down terribly.”
Bagraim said relationship between labour and employers are so strained that “in the very first meeting [to discuss wages], strike threats are made”.
He stressed, however, that despite the attacks, “collective bargaining is still very much an integral part” of the SA labour movement.
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