BL Premium reports that the Labour Court will have to answer the question of whether state employees have the contractual right to have their wage agreements honoured by the government when several public sector trade unions bring their legal challenge to the government’s refusal to pay wage increases in line with the final year in a multi-term wage agreement.  

It is uncharted waters for the public sector to not honour a wage agreement.  The increases in the final year of the three-year wage agreement signed in 2018 would have taken effect on 1 April, if the agreement had been honoured.  The court challenge has been in the making since it became obvious on 15 April, when state employees received their salaries, that there would be no pay rises.  Five public sector unions have now taken the matter to court.  The unions have asked the court to declare that the government’s failure to implement the salary increases as provided for in an agreement at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) was in breach of the contracts of employment of the applicants’ members.  They want the court to order that the salary increases be implemented on the basis that their members have “a contractual right to have their salaries increased”.  eantime, unions affiliated to Cosatu have applied for arbitration at the PSCBC after conciliation failed.  The matter has not yet been set down for arbitration and a date from the council is awaited.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Claudi Mailovich at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page