The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), a union representing traffic, police and prison officials, has sounded the alarm over worker unity among Cosatu’s public service affiliates, saying spats and disagreements on wages only serve to benefit the employer.
This comes after public servants received a wage increase of 4.7% on April 1, in line with a wage deal signed by the employer and four unions at the public service co-ordinating bargaining council (PSCBC) in Pretoria in March 2023.
The two-year wage agreement translated into public servants getting a wage increase of 7.5% during 2023/24 and projected consumer price inflation (CPI) for 2024/25. The inflation rate eased to 3.8% in September from 4.4% in August.
The two-year wage agreement was signed by the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), a Cosatu affiliate, and other unions belonging to rival labour federations including the Public Servants Association (PSA), National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA (Naptosa), and the Health & Other Services Personnel Trade Union of SA (Hospersa).
Cosatu affiliates including the National Education, Health & Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), Popcru and the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa), together with the rival SA Policing Union (Sapu), did not sign the wage agreement in protest over the government’s decision to unilaterally implement a 3% wage increase for public servants in October 2022, among other grievances.
At the five-day Popcru central executive committee meeting, Popcru president Thulani Ngwenya said the conduct of Cosatu unions not speaking with one voice would create divisions and weaken the joint mandating committee (JMC), a platform where Cosatu public service unions negotiate and agree on wage demands.
Ngwenya said: “We recognise the fact that Cosatu affiliates, especially within the public service, are passing through a special period, which demands extraordinary dedication and urgency on our part in defence of the Cosatu JMC and collective bargaining.
“It is rather unfortunate that during continuous public sector wage negotiations, which are normally being managed and facilitated through the JMC structure, as sister unions within Cosatu we could not build a consensus and maintain our unity on the demands.”
He recalled that when Cosatu unions elected to withdraw from the 2022/23 wage talks and embarked on strike action against government’s unilateral implementation of a 3% wage increase, “some in the council decided to stay put and ultimately, together with right-wing forces, signed the wage agreement that was never thrashed out in the JMC as per regulatory framework of the structure. This seems to be an ongoing trend as it relates to the current wage negotiations.”
Ngwenya said in 2019 some Cosatu unions “refused to sign” a wage deal reached in the PSCBC despite having participated fully in the process “without raising any challenges during the consolidation of the mandate” process.
“This conduct, apart from creating divisions in the Cosatu it would also weaken and undermine the JMC standing as the facilitation tool for wage negotiations for Cosatu affiliates,” the Popcru president said.
“The regulatory norm is that any differences that might arise, including diverse mandates solicited from their respective members, unions must be able to engage and ultimately find one another. The reality is that a divided JMC would compromise the hegemony of the Cosatu affiliates in both PSCBC and the GPSSBC [public service sector bargaining council].”
Ngwenya called for unity among Cosatu affiliates, saying: “As much as affiliates can carry diverse mandates, in building the strong working-class unity for economic liberation towards socialism, the federation must be able to manage these complex diversities.
“These differences in the JMC and councils have unfortunately resulted in a public spat between the affiliates and giving an upper hand to an employer in these bargaining councils.”
Ngwenya’s remarks come as public service unions in the PSCBC are collecting mandates from their members on whether to accept government’s revised wage offer of 4.7% for 2025/26, setting the scene for civil service strike should workers reject it and parties fail to break the deadlock.
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana said at a media briefing ahead of last week’s medium-term budget policy statement in parliament that the National Treasury had rejected the PSCBC facilitation process that resulted in the proposed 4.7% offer.
That process says “we must move to 4.7% and in six months’ time we move to 1.3% and it becomes 6%”, he said.
“As a proposal we have not accepted [this]. Unions are now going to get their new mandates, but I’m saying that proposal was from a facilitation process, it’s not necessarily a full offer on the table,” Godongwana said.
The Treasury later sought to clarify what Godongwana meant, telling Business Day: “The minister was referring to some of the scenarios that were discussed during the facilitation process, which included 4.7% in the first seven months and an additional 1.3% for the remaining five months in 2025/26 which effectively would have become 6%.
“That was never an official proposal from the facilitation process, it was one scenario that was discussed. Negotiations are continuing and various proposals are being explored at the PSCBC.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.