Fin24 reports that Cosatu has given government an ultimatum to stop discussing the fate of public servants unilaterally or risk losing the ANC-allied labour federation’s support at next year’s general election.
Cosatu's spokesperson Sizwe Pamla was speaking on a SAfm show on Monday morning ahead of the trade union federation's central executive committee (CEC) meeting this week. His remarks came in the context of reports, first published by the Mail & Guardian, that government was considering cutting 30,000 jobs in the public service to save about R20bn. When asked about Cosatu’s view on the reports, Pamla said: “We are not going to allow government to implement retrenchments in the public service. Simple as that." He indicated that neither government nor the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) had consulted workers about this. Minister of Public Service and Administration, Ayanda Dlodlo, said on Friday that there was no plan to lay off public servants en masse. Yet, DPSA spokesperson Mava Scott admitted that in the long-term government would have to consider the means to curb the growing headcount of the public service and said that this was unavoidable. “We have to come to a point where we engage employees, especially in the non-core, to consider severance packages or an early retirement. You must engage them, but it must be done in a proper process that includes the unions,” Scott said.
- Read this report by Khulekani Magubane in full at Fin24
- See too, Dlodlo says no plan to cut jobs in public sector, at EWN
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page