BusinessLive reported last week that public servants were still in limbo over whether they would receive salary increases in April in line with a standing wage agreement.
The government and organised labour have been at loggerheads over the implementation of the final year of a three-year wage agreement for public servants signed in 2018. This was after finance minister Tito Mboweni took a scalpel to the public wage bill in the 2020/2021 budget and penciled in huge cuts. The government has made a revised offer of a 4.4% pay increase for workers on employment levels one to eight, and no increases for levels nine to 16, but this has been rejected. While the Public Servants Association (PSA) has reserved its rights if the original 2018 agreement is not implemented, and Cosatu’s public-sector unions have declared a formal dispute at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC), the unions are still none the wiser as to what will be paid to their members come 15 April, when, if implemented, the increases as from 1 April will be paid. Reuben Maleka of the PSA, said on Thursday that it seemed unlikely the deal would be implemented for April as the state had written to indicate that it hoped the PSA “will consider coming back to the council to continue engagements through council processes”.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Claudi Mailovich at BusinessLive
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