The facilitation process at the public service co-ordinating bargaining council (PSCBC) when public servants and the employer cannot reach agreement, has come to an end, PSCBC general secretary Frikkie de Bruin said.
It is now up to the unions representing the country’s more than 1.3-million public servants including teachers, nurses and police officers, to get a mandate from their members on whether to accept or reject government’s revised wage offer and other employment benefits.
The department of public service and administration has revised its wage offer from 3% to 4.7% for 2025/26, which is above the 3.8% inflation rate recorded in September from 4.4% in August.
The state has proposed inflation-linked increases for the 2026/27 and 2027/28 financial years. Public service unions, however, have been wary of getting into multiterm wage deals with the state after the Constitutional Court ruled in 2022 that the government could back out of implementing the last part of the three-year wage deal signed in the PSCBC in 2018, because the unions were “unjustifiably enriched” from the “impugned collective agreement”.
De Bruin said on Tuesday that the government had offered increases to various allowances including the homeowners allowance (from R1,784 to R1,900; danger allowance (from R597 to R650); special danger allowance (from R849 to R920); and service allowance for police (from R700 to R920).
On issues pertaining to the death grant, childcare and breastfeeding facilities, the bursary scheme for dependents of public servants, the standardisation of union policy and the recruitment and selection policy, all these would be researched and “position papers will be developed for future negotiations”.
Parties were expected to further engage on the awarding of R6,500 for employees who had completed 10 years of service, permanent employment for reservists, educator assistants and community healthcare workers, and reinstatement of the performance bonus, “a crucial incentive for employee motivation”.
“Labour has requested time to consult their members on the detail of the proposals made, and as council we would want to allow them to do this. Therefore, we cannot divulge any more details at this stage,” De Bruin said.
“There is no date for the return of parties to the negotiations after the consultation; however, it is hoped that the consultation will be finalised within the next 14 days.
“The PSCBC would like to commend both parties for their professional conduct throughout the negotiation and facilitation process thus far, we also recognise public servants for their continued patience as their trade unions engage with the government to seek an amicable solution. We hope to bring this matter to closure as soon as possible.”
Reuben Maleka, GM of the Public Servants Association, which represents more than 245,000 government employees, said: “The employer has revised its wage offer to 4.7%. That’s where we are right now. We are busy balloting members to see what the appetite on that current offer is. Parties should be meeting at the PSCBC again … say Thursday or Friday.”
The unions’ initial demands, among others, included a R2,500 housing allowance increment across the board, a nearly two-fold rise in the danger allowance to R1,000, a performance bonus, bursary schemes for dependents of employees and permanent employment for education/teacher assistants, community health workers and reservists.
The wage demands for the 2025/26 financial year were viewed as putting finance minister Enoch Godongwana in a tight spot as they threatened to undermine his efforts to stabilise the country’s finances. Godongwana has kept a tight lid on the R700bn-plus wage bill, which was once the fastest-growing expenditure item in the budget.
In the 2024 Budget Review, the government pencilled in a total wage bill of just more than R750bn for the 2025/26 fiscal year, or about 4.5% higher than the previous year.
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