This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
BL Premium reports that more delays are feared in a court case to determine whether the government has to pay almost R40bn in salary increases to public sector workers, as the state now wants the court to declare that doing so would be unlawful.
The worry about further delays was raised by the Public Servants Association (PSA) after the Department of Public Service & Administration (DPAS) and Minister, Senzo Mchunu last week filed a counter-application in the case in which the unions want the court to order that the state cannot just renege on a wage deal. The increases the state agreed to pay as part of a 2018 multi-term wage agreement were supposed to have taken effect on 1 April this year, but the government said it did not have the money to pay. The refusal to pay is now being tested in both court and arbitration proceedings. While the state initially just opposed the application brought by the PSA and other unions to enforce their members’ contractual rights, the DPSA and Mchunu have now changed tack. In a counter-application, they are now asking the court to declare that enforcing the applicable clause in the agreement would be unlawful as it would contravene both the constitution and the public service regulations. Alternatively, they want the court to declare that the clause is either unenforceable as it offends public policy or that it is unlawful as it breaches the implied term that it is only enforceable if there is funding or a budget available for it, or if the increase is affordable. Another alternative before the court is to declare that the agreement is unenforceable, as the performance of the agreement is “objectively impossible”.
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