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Financial Mail reports that labour federation Cosatu has proposed that, as part of attempts to address the public sector wage bill, the government conduct an audit of the public service, to determine where shortages and surpluses exist.
The recommendation was made at the ANC’s January lekgotla. The government is currently under pressure to slash the public sector wage bill. The state spends about R600bn on salaries, representing 35% of its annual spending. Finance minister Tito Mboweni’s budget, to be delivered on 26 February, is likely to focus on reining in government spending and to outline plans to curb the public sector wage bill to stave off a looming fiscal crisis. According to Cosatu, instead of retrenchments and wage freezes, the public service should be audited to determine where gaps and surpluses existed — these could then be addressed through reskilling and “redeploying” public sector workers according to where they were needed. The labour federation further recommended that excess defence force personnel be redeployed to the SA Revenue Service, customs and the police. It also called for an investigation into “ghost posts”, particularly at provincial level, in state-owned entities (SOEs) and in municipalities. In its view, SOEs should fall under the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council to “reduce the wage gap” between public servants and SOE employees. Cosatu further called for the salary packages of those in executive and management posts to be drastically reduced.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Natasha Marrian at BusinessLive
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