Today's Labour News

The Star reports that according to Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu, government has put measures in place to manage the public sector wage bill.  

“The Department of Public Service and Administration and National Treasury monitor the public service wage expenditure to identify new and further areas for potential savings,” he indicated in a written parliamentary response to the IFP’s Mkhuleko Hlengwa, who had enquired whether the department had made any progress in reducing the public wage bill.  The public sector wage bill has continued to grow unabated over the years and Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has said that government wanted it reduced by R27 billion over the next three years.  Early retirement without penalties has been identified as one of the measures to reduce the bill along with limits on overtime and bonus payments.  Human resources-related areas aimed to reduce the wage bill have been jointly identified between Mchunu’s department and the National Treasury.  The minister named the granting of early retirement without penalties and said:  “The provision for applications for early retirement, where National Treasury provides funding support to departments, is limited to the period April 1, 2019 to September 30, 2019.  An assessment will therefore be conducted to determine whether a further need for financial support for early retirement is required by departments.”  Mchunu advised that a strategy to decrease the percentage of a department’s allocated remuneration budget for the payment of performance rewards had been developed together with the National Treasury whereby departments may not utilise more than 1.5% of their annual remuneration budget for the payment of such rewards.

• Read the full original of Mayibongwe Maqhina’s report in the above regard on page 7 of The Star of 9 July 2019

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