BL Premium reports that labour federation Cosatu has given its ally the ANC an ultimatum to implement a wage increase agreement for public servants or lose votes in next year’s municipal elections.  

The federation, which has a membership of more than 1.8-million, has been campaigning for the ANC during national and local elections since the dawn of democracy in 1994.  Relations between the governing party and Cosatu, both part of the ANC-led tripartite alliance, have been strained after the government reneged on a three-year public sector wage agreement signed with labour, citing a lack of funds.  Implementing the last leg of the 2018 wage deal for 1.3-million public servants would cost R37.8bn, and the government says it doesn’t have the money for it.  Cosatu affiliates have since taken the government to court over the matter.  In her closing address at the Cosatu national bargaining conference on Friday, Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi said workers were tired of broken promises, corruption, retrenchments and the government’s attacks on collective bargaining.  “If the ANC wants the votes of workers then it must respect workers and listen to them.  It must engage unions in good faith and stop taking them for granted.  [The] government must honour the 2020 wage agreement and engage unions on the next three-year wage agreement,” Losi warned.

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

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