Bloomberg reports that according to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the government is seeking to cut 30,000 state jobs and freeze pay increases for three years as part of the state’s proposal to reduce its wage bill.
There are about 1.3 million government workers and the wage bill makes up 35.4% of national spending. President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday in his state-of-the-nation address that his administration was engaging with labour and other stakeholders on measures to contain the spending on salaries and reduce wastage. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni would announce plans to reduce spending in the 26 February national budget, Ramaphosa indicated. “We’re not going to entertain those” proposals, said Sizwe Pamla, the spokesman for Cosatu, the country’s biggest labour federation. “Government has a right to engage with its employees but government doesn’t have the right to its own slaves,” he observed.
- Read the original of the above report by Prinesha Naidoo at Moneyweb
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