A coalition of public service unions says it will serve government with a seven-day strike notice, increasing the stakes between government workers and the state, which unilaterally implemented a 3% pay rise in 2022.
In a joint briefing at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) in Centurion, Tshwane on Thursday, representatives of the unions said they will boycott a special council meeting, called by the government for Friday to prepare for the 2023/2024 wage negotiations.
They want the 2022/2023 wage impasse resolved first before entering into the talks on pay for 2023/2024.
The impasse is certain to deepen the divide between the ANC-led government and its main ally, Cosatu, with which many unions are affiliated. The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), has already publicly urged the umbrella body to quit the alliance.
The disgruntled unions are Nehawu, the SA Policing Union (Sapu), the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa), the National Union of Public Service & Allied Workers Union (Nupsaw), the SA Medical Association Trade Union (Samatu), and the SA Emergency Personnel’s Union (Saepu),
Thulas Nxesi, the acting minister of public service and administration unilaterally implemented a 3% for the country's 1.3-million public servants in 2022. Three unions, the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA (Naptosa) and the SA Teachers’ Union (SATU) broke ranks and accepted the 3% increase.
The government has said the offer, which includes an extension of a R1,000 after-tax cash gratuity, is in line its commitment to rein in the public sector wage bill, which accounts for more than one-third of government spending.
The unions were demanding a 10% increase, citing the rapidly rising cost of living. SA’s inflation rate eased to 6.9% in January from 7.2% in December 2022.
Denosa president Simon Hlungwani, who is also the convener of Cosatu’s joint mandating committee, told the PSCBC on Thursday that the unions will issue notice of an indefinite strike on February 22.
Public servants remained resolute in demanding the R13.2bn owed to them “with interest” as it related to the last leg of a three-year wage deal signed in the bargaining council in 2018, Hlungwani said.
The government has refused, saying it doesn’t have the money.
Hlungwani said Friday’s meeting was nothing but an exercise to “tick the boxes ... Our negotiators won’t participate in any activities of the PSCBC until the dispute of the 2022/2023 financial year is resolved,” Hlungwani said.
The R1,000 gratuity, which ends in March 2023, must continue until there was another resolution on the table, he added. “If they take away that R1,000 they’d be committing a crime, we will take them to court.”
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